I remember seeing "leaders" in the Vancouver tech industry talk about a labour shortage and thought the same thing [1]. Given the cost of housing and the salaries Vancouver companies are willing to pay, it's not a mystery why there is an exodus from Van. Pay up buttercup.
Salaries in Van are lame, but the housing costs are all out of proportion.
I was in Kitsilano a couple weeks ago and stayed in an AirBnB; liked the neighborhood and decided to check out some of the for Sale Signs. Modest 3-bedrooms were going for $1.7-$2.4MM CAD, while average Dev salary was something like 90k CAD. Even if that doubled they'd be hard pressed to pay for housing that high.
Housing in Vancouver is disproportionately high compared to salaries but I probably wouldn't use Kitsilano as an example. Point Grey and Kits are some of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the city. You can find more reasonable, but still very high, prices in other parts of the city.
I was in Kitsilano a couple weeks ago and stayed in an AirBnB; liked the neighborhood and decided to check out some of the for Sale Signs. Modest 3-bedrooms were going for $1.7-$2.4MM CAD, while average Dev salary was something like 90k CAD. Even if that doubled they'd be hard pressed to pay for housing that high.