The 2006 census has revealed a sharp decline in rental-housing stock in Vancouver and across the Lower Mainland over the past five years. The number of rental units declined by 244 units per year in Vancouver between 2001 and 2006, whereas the number of owner-occupied units increased by 3,702 units per year. Extrapolating over five years from the 2001 census, that equates to a decline of 1,220 rental units and an increase of 18,510 owner-occupied units.

Statistics Canada reported in the census that 52 percent of Vancouver residents were renters in 2006, which was the lowest percentage since the 1966 census, when only 48 percent were renters. In the 2001 census, 56 percent were renters. The historic high of 59 percent renters occurred in the 1991 census.

Across the region, only 27 percent of residents were renters in the 2006 census, down from 31 percent in 2001. The number of rental units across the region fell by six percent, or approximately 9,500 units, between 2001 and 2006, according to census figures.