UBC student housing rents set to increase by up to 8%

The new UBC student residence at 5955 Student Union Boulevard, named The Houses of the Ones Belonging to the Saltwater, as of August 14, 2021. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

Students living in on-campus residences at the University of British Columbia (UBC) can expect to see some of the highest rent rate increases in recent memory over the next school year.

The university confirmed with Daily Hive Urbanized the increases for the 2023/2024 school year will range between 3.5% and 8%. This range depends on unit type, with family housing and older buildings at the lower end of the range, and newer, high-demand buildings at the higher end of the rate increase.

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In a statement, Andrew Parr, the Associate Vice-President of Student Housing and Community Services of UBC, told Daily Hive Urbanized this increase comes after a reprieve of a 0% increase over the first two years of the pandemic.

He says the high rate of inflation is increasing the cost of operating the student residences, and there is a need to generate new revenue to maintain existing facilities and help cover the construction cost of new additional student residences over the coming years.

As such, he says, UBC is forced to increase its student residence rents for the next three years at a “higher level than usual” rate of growth.

The steep increase for some student residents comes at a time when a growing proportion of students are facing major cost of living issues, including challenges with being able to afford the basics of food. According to a survey of students by the UBC Alma Mater Student Society, about 40% of undergraduate students and 50% of graduate students “feel food insecure.”

Parr notes that the range of rate increases are within UBC’s self-regulated housing policy limits. While the BC provincial government has stipulated a 2023 rent increase ceiling of no more than 2%, this policy does not apply to student housing operated by the university.

Under Policy 11 of UBC’s student residence rent controls, the increases to rental rates are based on: borrowing costs, self-supporting 100% cost recovery, the provision of at or below market rental rates relative to CMHC’s statistics for the local area and peer universities across Canada, and price variances between older and newer student residences. Furthermore, the maximum annual rent increase of any type of student residence unit cannot exceed the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), plus 2%. In 2022, the CPI went up by 6.8% on an annual average basis.

“Even with these increases, UBC student housing rates remain lower than equivalent market rental rates, and are competitive with peer institutions,” he added.

Typically each year, UBC has a student residence waitlist of about 6,000 students. Those who are unable to land a spot in residence are forced to contend with conventional rental housing near or off campus. Currently within Metro Vancouver, the vacancy rate for secured purpose-built rental housing is hovering at about 1%.

UBC has plans to build at least 3,300 new additional student beds for the Vancouver-Point Grey campus by 2034 — increasing its on-campus student housing supply from the existing 14,000 beds to over 17,000. More beds beyond the 3,300 minimum target could be achievable, but this is based on demand and financing capacity.

New additional student residence buildings could be accomplished by redeveloping aging residences with larger, modern accommodations, such as the redevelopments of the residences of Place Vanier and Totem Park.

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