Vancouver, with its ocean, glass skyscrapers, is a beautiful place to live in. In fact, the city is famous for being one of the world’s ‘most livable’ cities and is regularly cited as one of the top examples when ‘livable’ cities are discussed. It’s gambling side also is bubbling with energy and has a lot to offer. However, the world-class quality of living comes with a price. Vancouver is estimated to be the most expensive city to live in not only in Canada but in the whole of North America. But is Vancouver so pricey that it scares away the big whales of gambling? One of the prominent experts on Canadian gambling, OnlineCasinoHex.ca states local online casinos in Vancouver can offer more to professional players, than expected. But then why it’s still not being one of the gambling Meccas?

Too Pricey To Live
The Economist Intelligence Unit found that Vancouver had the highest cost of living of any city in Canada in 2018. The reason why Vancouver is such a costly city to live in is its expensive housing market, which is the highest-priced in the country. In fact, Metropolitan Vancouver is found to have the most expensive housing market in the whole of North America, beating out cities like Los Angeles, San Jose, and Toronto. Not only is Vancouver more expensive, but there’s also a startling contrast in affordability between Vancouver and other cities in the area. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ‘housing affordability index’, Vancouver has an affordability ratio of 11. It means that the median housing in the city is 11 times more than the average median income. This number is quite alarming, considering that the national average in Canada is only 4.9. Moreover, cities that ranked from spots two to five in the index scored between 8.2. to 8.8 at most.

Even more astonishingly, it is ranked by Demographia as the third least affordable major city in the world, behind Hong Kong and Sydney. The city has been in the top three for six consecutive years. It has also been the least affordable city in Canada since Demographia began publishing the annual report in 2004. According to this study, the average home price in Vancouver in 2018 was 12.6 times higher than the average household income. Unaffordability is on the rise in the city; in 2017 this figure was 11.8, and in 2016 it was 10.6. Overall, prices for housing in Vancouver have increased by 11% year-over-year, which is four times higher than the increase in annual earnings.

Not Enough Space
One of the reasons why the housing market is so expensive in Vancouver is the city’s high-density housing. Any expansion of Vancouver is restricted by sea and mountains more so than elsewhere. It’s thus not surprising that critically low housing supply in Vancouver has failed to meet an ever-growing demand. The situation is aggravated by the low Vancouver salaries, and little opportunity to move up the career ladder.

Vancouver is an amazing city to live in, but it has eye-watering real estate prices. To paint a better picture, the average home in Vancouver cost $1,094,000 in mid-2018, which is much more expensive than in Toronto, $772,000; Ottawa, $389,000 or Montreal, $345,000. As we can see, the cost of living in Canada varies widely from place to place, so if a certain city looks like it is the place for you, make sure to check that you can afford it.

Overall, it’s still a quite bizarre thing that one of the biggest cities in Canada, a place with a regulated and licensed gambling industry, gambling can only manage to bring 0,6% revenue to the city budget. Does the problem lie in little advertising of all gambling possibilities of Vancouver? Or were we right to conclude that the city must be just too pricey for the gambler. Of course, with such loads of money being spent on the rent and everyday needs, gambling as hobby stops being a priority. And even online gambling doesn’t seem to be much of a help in this situation.