Market Rental Housing Policy

Market Rental Housing
Market rental housing is an important part of Richmond's housing stock. This type of rental housing is provided by the private sector and rented at market rates.

Richmond City Council adopted a Market Rental Housing Policy on September 4, 2018.  The policy seeks to protect the supply of market rental housing units in the city, support tenants at the time of redevelopment and encourage the development of new market rental housing.  The policy is part of the City's Official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw.
  
Residential Rental Tenure Zoning
In May 2018, the Province of British Columbia amended the Local Government Act to provide municipalities with a new authority to zone for residential rental tenure.  The legislation allows local governments to limit the form of tenure in multi-family residential areas to rental.  Through their zoning bylaws, municipalities may require that a certain number, portion or percentage of housing units in a building be rental.  Residential rental tenure zoning is intended to provide local governments with a greater ability to preserve existing areas of rental housing and to increase the supply of rental housing in their communities.

On April 2, 2019, a report was presented to Planning Committee that identified approaches to implementing residential rental tenure zoning in Richmond.  Included in the report was a proposed Zoning Bylaw amendment to rezone 60 existing purpose-built rental housing sites to limit the tenure of residential units to rental only.  Upon consideration by Planning Committee, the report and proposed Zoning Bylaw amendment was referred back to staff for public consultation.

Public and stakeholder consultation was conducted on proposed approaches to residential rental tenure zoning during May and June 2019.  A report summarizing the consultation, along with staff recommendations will be brought forward for Council's consideration during the fall 2019.

Tenant Protections and Relocation Assistance
Richmond tenants living in market rental buildings that are being redeveloped are offered assistance through Richmond's Market Rental Policy (adopted in 2018), as well as protections through the provincial Residential Tenancy Act which is administered by the Province.  This Tenant Relocation Factsheet provides more information about tenant protections and relocation assistance available to Richmond tenants.

Recent Reports to City Council

 Reports are provided in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Date	Report	Agenda Item #	Minutes
2022-May-24	Referral Response: Proposed Mandatory Market Rental Housing Policy and Proposed Rental Housing Parking Changes	10	Minutes
2022-Jan-10	Application of Residential Rental Tenure Zoning to Preserve and Protect 60 Existing Purpose Built Rental Housing Sites	9	Minutes
2019-Sept-4	Market Rental Housing Policy One Year Report Back	4	Minutes
2019-Apr-2	Market Rental Housing Policy and Approaches for Residential Rental Tenure Zoning	3	Minutes
2018-Sept-4	Bylaws 9879, 9889 and 9886	7	Minutes
2018-Jul-9	Market Rental Housing Policy (to Council)	14	Minutes
2018-Jul-4	Market Rental Housing Policy (to Planning Committee)	4	Minutes

Relevant Documents
 September 2018 - Bulletin Planning-05 Market Rental Housing Policy
  July 2022 - Bulletin Planning-06 Official Community Plan Market Rental Housing Policy Update (revised January 2023)

For further information, please contact:

Policy Planning
Planning and Development Division
Phone: 604-276-4207
Fax: 604-276-4052
Email: communityplanning@richmond.ca