More Homes. Faster Approvals. More Options for Vancouver Families.
Vancouver’s housing challenge cannot be solved with one program, one level of government, or one type of housing. From rental and owned housing to co-op and below-market options, it requires building more homes of every kind while making it faster and less expensive to get homes built.
Over the past four years, Mayor Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver have focused on moving Vancouver from talking about housing to delivering it.
In 2025 alone, Vancouver approved 12,795 new homes, 54% above the City’s annual target, including more than 10,000 purpose-built rental homes. More than 2,300 purpose-built market rental homes were completed, the highest annual total in more than 40 years. The City has expanded multiplex housing, streamlined permitting, established the Vancouver Housing Development Office and adopted Vancouver’s first citywide Official Development Plan.
The next four years will focus on turning those approvals into homes. Here’s how:
1.
MAKE VANCOUVER CANADA’S FASTEST CITY TO BUILD HOUSING
ABC will continue to drive towards our 3-3-3-1 permitting framework while maintaining our clear, publicly reported service standards for housing approvals.
For projects that fully comply with existing zoning and building requirements, the goal should be simple: if it fits the rules, get it built, no delay.
ABC will expand combined development/building permits, digital approvals and pre-approved designs, while identifying additional permit categories suitable for accelerated or automated review.
This builds on the significant progress we have made over the past four years, moving sprinkler permit times from 12 weeks to 24 hours, including cutting laneway home permitting times by 50%, reducing detached home permitting times by 36%, and reducing development permit timelines for multi-family and mid-rise projects by 46%.
2.
BUILD THE “MISSING MIDDLE” FOR FAMILIES
ABC will build on Vancouver’s multiplex reforms by making townhomes, rowhouses, multiplexes and family-sized apartments easier to build across the city.
The City will expand its catalogue of pre-approved housing designs, including family-oriented fourplexes and sixplexes, allowing homeowners and small builders to save time and design costs.
ABC will also review unnecessary regulations that make three-bedroom and family-sized homes disproportionately expensive to build.
3.
TURN CITY LAND INTO MIDDLE-INCOME HOUSING
The Vancouver Housing Development Office will receive a strengthened mandate to identify underused City-owned properties that can support housing.
Empty lots, aging civic sites and other appropriate public properties should be evaluated for mixed-use housing development, while maintaining or replacing required public amenities.
Rather than simply selling valuable public land, Vancouver can retain ownership and use long-term leases and partnerships to create market rental, strata and co-op housing, built and operated by non-public entities, while generating long-term value for taxpayers.
Through the Vancouver Housing Development Office, the City has already identified an initial tranche of City-owned sites with the potential to deliver approximately 4,200 new middle-income rental homes, while putting public land to work generating ongoing non-tax revenue for Vancouver.
4.
A “START BUILDING” INCENTIVE
Housing approvals mean little if projects never break ground.
ABC will explore a temporary Start Building Vancouver program that reduces or defers eligible City fees for approved housing projects that begin construction within a defined period.
In return, projects must deliver homes faster. Enhanced incentives could be available for purpose-built rental, family-sized and below-market homes.
The principle is straightforward: reward construction, not speculation on approvals.
5.
MORE HOMES AROUND SKYTRAIN
Vancouver’s new Official Development Plan provides greater certainty about where the city will grow.
ABC will accelerate implementation around rapid transit, major corridors and neighbourhood villages so more Vancouverites can live within walking distance of shops, childcare, parks, schools and transit.
Where the City has already decided housing belongs, the process should focus on building it.
6.
CREATE A VANCOUVER WORKFORCE HOUSING PROGRAM
Vancouver increasingly risks becoming a city where the people who make it work cannot afford to live here.
ABC will pursue partnerships with employers, unions, non-profits and senior governments to create housing opportunities for essential workers, including nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers, childcare workers and other middle-income Vancouverites.
City land and additional density can be leveraged where appropriate to make these projects financially viable without placing the entire cost on property taxpayers.
7.
STOP THE PROVINCIAL SRO BUDGET OVERRUN AND INVEST IN WORKING CLASS FAMILIES
By neglecting working-class families, one-parent households living paycheque to paycheque, and young people who need low-income housing, the Provincial government has failed to help low- and middle-class families who need to access rental housing. Instead of investing in failed SROs, it should have invested in housing these families can actually afford.
THE GOAL
Housing policy should ultimately be measured by whether people can find a home that works for their life.
A young person should be able to build their life in Vancouver.
A couple should be able to find a home when they can start a family.
A senior should be able to downsize in the neighbourhood they already know and love.
And the people who teach our children, staff our hospitals, protect our neighbourhoods and keep our businesses running should have a realistic opportunity to live in the city they serve.
The next phase of Vancouver’s housing strategy will focus on more supply, more choice, faster construction and a city where people at every stage of life can find a place to call home.
