Purpose-Built Rentals
Purpose-built rental housing offers a secure and long-term option for households who cannot or choose not to own their homes. Renting offers a more flexible and less expensive option compared to homeownership. Purpose-built rental housing refers to apartment buildings designed as long-term rental housing. Purpose-built rental forms the primary rental market housing stock. They offer more housing security than the secondary market rentals, whose owners may decide to use the unit for their own purposes.
A goal of the Victoria Housing Strategy Phase Two: Focus on Renters is to improve affordability and stability for renters, including maintaining and improving existing rental housing units and creating new non-market, below-market and market rental housing options.
Encouraging New Rental Housing Development
Council supported the following policies and regulations, which help encourage new purpose-built rental units:
- the Inclusionary Housing and Community Amenity Policy [PDF/3.8MB] encourages affordable housing in new developments
- parking reductions for rental apartment developments to lower development costs (see Schedule C in the Zoning Bylaw)
- prioritizing development applications for affordable and/or rental units secured through legal agreements
- provide bonus density about the base density for rental projects
Rental Tenure Zoning
In 2018, the provincial government introduced Residential Rental Tenure Zoning (RRTZ or Rental Zoning). It gives municipalities the authority to limit housing tenure to rentals in residential zones. These changes give local governments the ability to preserve and increase the supply of rental housing.
Victoria Council directed staff to undertake several Rental Zoning related actions, including:
- Preparing draft zoning bylaw amendments. These amendments apply residential rental tenure zoning to existing purpose-built market rental properties.
- Adding a new definition of residential rental tenure to the City’s zoning bylaws. They are now included in site-specific zoning when applicants propose purpose-built rental developments.
- Participating in a University of British Columbia (UBC) study to consider the potential economic impacts of Rental Zoning use. This study is led by the Housing Research Collaborative and the Sauder School of Business Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate.