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Brisbane isn't really a fair comparison, Sydney is a more direct one and their housing prices are very comparable to Vancouver.
I'm one of the "lucky" ones who bought a townhouse 5 years ago. At the time, I was debating whether to buy a tear-down house, or a livable townhouse. The house was about 20%-30% more at the time, but would need at least $100K of renovations. I went for the townhouse because I wanted to save some income for RRSPs/TFSAs, and also because my wife didn't want to deal with the hassle of rennos.
Fast forward 5 years, I do have some regret about not buying a house. Now the prices are 100% more than a townhouse and it seems like the gap is now too large for me to ever upgrade.
I think there is definitely some entitlement for those that have grown up in Vancouver. It's easy to compare your situation to what your parents had, or with other cities (e.g. Seattle) and ask, "why can't I afford a house, there should be housing price controls, etc".
For my family, we've just learned to accept reality. I know plenty of doctors that are living in townhouses; it's just the reality of living in the lower mainland unless you bought in at the right time or are powered by parents.
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