Olympic Games and Housing Markets

The Impact of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games on the Vancouver and Sea-to-Sky Housing Markets

Cities are increasingly using mega events such as the Olympic Games to enhance short- and long-term economic opportunities and to raise their international profile. The events are anticipated to attract tourism, garner international media recognition, stimulate rapid development of infrastructure, and lead to the construction of sports and leisure facilities. Extensive research has been conducted on the economic impacts of hosting mega events, but very few studies have examined the impact on housing markets in host regions.

In 2006, CitySpaces together with Urban Futures, carried out a pre-Games study on the estimated impact of the 2010 Olympics on housing in both the Sea-to-Sky corridor and Vancouver.

The research entailed three components:

• a literature review
• a review of the housing market
• forecasts of population, housing and employment for the region between 2001 and 2031

The literature review recounted various host cities’ experiences with mega events, such as the Olympic Games, specifically the impact on their economies and housing markets. The review related these experiences to the potential implications and impacts of the 2010 Olympic Games on the economy and housing markets of communities in the host region.

The second component, the housing market review, comprises a series of reports on housing markets in Vancouver and the Sea-to-Sky corridor (including the municipalities of Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and Lillooet). These reports presented current and historical information related to population and residential real estate. They also included a discussion of non-market housing components, and identified population groups that could have been impacted by the Games.

Building on the first two components, the projections provided estimates of the potential impact of the Games on regional housing markets. This required projections of housing market conditions under two scenarios—one that included hosting the Games and one that did not. The “no Games” scenario was constructed by extending pre-2002 demographic and economic trends for the region into the future, while the “Games” scenario built on federal and provincial data on the economic impacts of hosting the Games.

CLIENT: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation