Vancouver packing company sees spike in people moving away from BC

According to Vancouver in the Box, more BC and Vancouver residents have decided to move away from the province.

Vancouver in the Box is a local residential and commercial packing company established in Vancouver in 2008. They serve moving companies around the Lower Mainland.

They’ve been tracking mobility trends since the pandemic and have seen similarities between 2020 and 2022. The biggest takeaway is that they’ve seen three times more clients moving from BC and Vancouver to the Islands and Sunshine Coast and that half of those who moved out of BC relocated to Alberta.

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Vancouver in the Box suggests that the most popular destinations for people heading away from Vancouver/BC are Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and Alberta. The data comes from the clients of the Vancouver-based packing company.

“During 2021, what we call the ‘Core’ year of the pandemic, about 11% of clients we have
packed moved out of Vancouver to the suburbs and the Okanagan (2%). These are mainly
families where the parents moved their office into the house or apartment and needed more outdoor space for the kids and working space for themselves. This number shrank in 2022 to 9%; closer to what it was in 2020 – 8%,” Vancouver in the Box said in a statement.

Half of those who moved out of BC relocated to Alberta, and Vancouver in the Box says that the province is the most popular place for young families.

Vancouver in the Box

One likely reason many are moving to Alberta is affordability, with the cost of owning or renting a home being much cheaper than in Vancouver. The same likely goes for the Sunshine Coast, while other parts of Vancouver Island, like Victoria, are just as expensive as Vancouver.

Half of those who moved out of BC relocated to Alberta, and Vancouver in the Box says that the province is the most popular place for young families.

There are also people coming back to Vancouver from the suburbs.

“While 2020 and 2021 are very similar, in each year only 0.5% of the clients we packed moved from the suburbs to Vancouver, in 2022, this number increased to 2%.”

Earlier this year, U-Haul also gathered data on people moving away from BC in its migration report.

Do you have plans to leave the most expensive city in Canada? Let us know in the comments.

Find the full report from Vancouver in the Box here.