But to add a layer to this - rental suites largely exist b/c of racist and discriminatory zoning policies that were introduced in the 1920s that prohibited multi-family housing in nearly the entire city.
https://www.abundanthousingvancouver...condary_suites
Prior to that there was an abundance of different housing forms - 4 story walk-ups, oddball quadplexes, all sorts of weird lots sizes etc.
The restrictive policies of the 1920s which were designed to punish minorities and low income people live on today so that there's not enough housing for people in Vancouver thus driving up housing prices. The pressure for housing resulted in people being opportunistic in portioning parts of their homes out to rent out - Vancouver specials in the 70s were the tipping point, they were designed to be multi-generational which meant they could be multi-family. (Oh yeah, Chinatown and Japantown and Hogan's Alley ended up where they were because of these policies - they didn't chose to be next to the downtown east side)
By 2004 Vancouver chose to legalize rental suites and the fiction of real single family homes ended. Vancouver could have chosen a different path - they could have allowed subdivision of existing detached lots, they could have allowed for duplexes, triplexes, row houses, and walk ups but FUCKING RICH WHITE PEOPLE blocked it. Don't blame foreign money (at least it's not that high on the list) for the ills of today's housing market.
We likely wouldn't be so riled up about housing prices if it weren't for a bunch of racist white people in the 1920's and their descendants.