{"id":747533,"date":"2026-06-19T15:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/747533\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:44:13","slug":"b-c-development-association-cancels-awards-citing-worst-housing-market-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/747533\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. development association cancels awards, citing ‘worst housing market in decades’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two years ago, in one of its busiest showings, nearly 600 industry leaders gathered at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver to celebrate the Urban Development Institute’s (UDI) 40th Awards of Excellence.<\/p>\n

This year, the event has been cancelled.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re in one of the worst housing markets in decades\u2026 There is little to celebrate when the conditions to build are this broken,” UDI CEO Michael Drummond wrote in a post on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tom Davidoff, director of the University of British Columbia\u2019s (UBC) centre for urban economics and real estate, said that\u2019s a fair characterization.<\/p>\n

“This is an extraordinarily challenging time for the development industry. Times were great a few years ago,” Davidoff said.<\/p>\n

\"AThomas Davidoff is pictured in Vancouver, British Columbia on Wednesday, December 18, 2019. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

When development was booming a few years ago, interest rates were low, population growth was high, and so was market interest, he said. Since then, interest rates have risen and population growth has slowed, which has caused prices to fall dramatically.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s almost impossible to have bought land around 2021, 2022, and to have a project completed today without losing money.”<\/p>\n

He said the combination of higher interest rates and lower population growth is a “double-whammy,” which means lower returns for investors and less incentive for developers to break ground.<\/p>\n

Michael Geller operates a consultancy firm specializing in development, planning and real estate. He said this issue is even being felt by major developers.<\/p>\n

“For a long time, condominiums were very successful in this city, but in the last three or four years, most condominium projects have not been able to proceed.”<\/p>\n

Architect and developer Michael Geller likens UDI cancelling its awards to cancelling a party because someone is very sick, in this case, the development industry. (Margaret Gallagher\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Geller pointed to the recent court-ordered receivership of Westbank Corporation\u2019s Joyce 2 rental tower, which removed the developer\u2019s control over the project.<\/p>\n

He said the federal and provincial governments were responding to the public by tightening immigration and policies around urban development \u2014 effects that are now being felt across the industry.<\/p>\n

“At one point we had a significant immigration which was creating demand, and then all of a sudden the tap was turned off.”<\/p>\n

There is plenty of construction demand across various sectors in B.C., according to the British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA), which represents thousands of companies in the province\u2019s industrial, commercial, institutional, and residential construction sectors.<\/p>\n

Chris Atchison, BCCA president, added that construction remains one of the province\u2019s most active work sectors. He said members of the association are more worried about what\u2019s to come in a few years.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s less work coming. And that doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019re not busy now. It means that we\u2019re looking ahead three and four and five years, and there\u2019s a little bit of trepidation and uncertainty about what we might be doing.”<\/p>\n

\"AA construction project in Vancouver in November, 2023. (Andrew Lee\/CBC News )<\/p>\n

He said BCCA members are citing inflationary pressures, financing costs, permitting delays and payment uncertainties as issues that “keep contractors up at night.”<\/p>\n

Atchison explained that projects being delayed slows down the entire construction cycle \u2014 which can widen gaps between projects in workers\u2019 schedules.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s inherent risk and big dollars associated with these projects. But that doesn\u2019t mean that that risk needs to go to those who can least afford it \u2014 those who are actually building the province.”<\/p>\n

WATCH | Developers in Metro Vancouver seek solutions amid market decline:\"\"<\/p>\n

Metro Vancouver developers turn to bulk condo sales amid weak pre-sales and market slowdown<\/p>\n

Metro Vancouver developers turn to bulk condo sales amid weak pre-sales and market slowdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-747533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}