A Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) report comparing the construction of multiplexes and townhomes in six Canadian cities found that gentle-to-medium density developments declined by 56 per cent between 2018 and 2024 in B.C.’s most populous city.

The drop in Vancouver is in contrast to an average increase of five per cent between 2018 and 2023 and a surge of 44 per cent between 2023 and 2024 when analyzing starts across Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal.

So called “missing middle” housing includes multiplexes, row homes, stacked townhouses and low-rise apartments, which often can be quickly developed in neighbourhoods, especially when rezoning isn’t required.

They’ve come into favour in recent years as a way to densify single-family home neighbour

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