Monopoly pricing rents.

A handful of real estate holding corporations have been buying up apartment buildings in BC for the last ten years as small holders age out of the market.

By 2020, as reported in a Feb. 9, 2023, CBC article ("1 in 5 properties across much of Canada are owned by investors. That makes it harder for 1st-time buyers"), this oligopoly had cornered the rental housing market in BC.

Enormous holders exercising monopoly pricing power advance their aim to extract the maximum possible economic rent from BC's economy by arguing that "supply and demand," not their monopoly pricing power, is responsible for the outrageous rents they demand (rents in Victoria increased by 46% from July 2019 to July 2021 and an additional 33% in 2022 [page 20]), that increasing the "supply" of "market rate" housing will bring rents down, and that the reason "demand" so outstrips "supply" is that "population growth" due to "excessive immigration" from abroad and Victoria's desirable climate has caused "demand" to outstrip "supply."

Gullible government officials have responded to lobbying by for-profit developers by enacting policies that will build huge amounts of "market rate" housing, which will increase not decrease rents and attract out-of-province retirees in particular who would never have considered moving to Victoria if huge numbers of "market rate" condos were not built under the false pretense of lowering rents.

To battle giant real estate holding corporations' monopoly pricing, only social – meaning no "market rate" – housing should be built, and in sufficient quantity to accommodate a workforce trapped in a housing market cornered by ruthless financial predators.

"Demand" is not the problem, but building upscale housing will attract an influx of people that, as has been reported, will overwhelm Vancouver Island's physical capability to support them.