Micro Condos for Vancouver
Now that the W has revitalized the Downtown Eastside, eliminating the scourge of homeless, drug addicts, panhandlers and prostitutes there’s just one more bold step to complete this neighborhoods transformation: 270 sq foot micro condos.
For those keeping track, that’s the size of two parking spots. You can tell your grandkids about the good ol’ days when your family lived in a spacious 450sq foot condo.
RSS 2.0 comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.John Stovell, general manager of Reliance Properties, said there’s a strong need for more affordable rental units in the downtown area.
“So many people contact us, not with a specific size they want, or specific amenities, but they tell us where they want to be in the neighbourhood and how much they can pay. So often that amount is just not achievable for anything but a very specialized product like this,” he said.
“By cutting away the non-essentials, that is the only way to get to that price-point in Vancouver,” he said.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:36 am
I suppose your also must reduce your life to a micro life to live there.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
@gdot: Yikes! I had no idea. So would someone who compares VANOC to the Nazi regime be exonerated of the charge of having broken Godwin’s Law?
January 29th, 2010 at 11:47 am
@patriotz:
the torch relay was a nazi idea in the first place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame
“The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
The relay, captured in Leni Riefenstahl’s film Olympia, was part of the Nazi propaganda machine’s attempt to add myth and mystique to Adolf Hitler’s regime. Hitler saw the link with the ancient Games as the perfect way to illustrate his belief that classical Greece was an Aryan forerunner of the modern German Reich.”
January 29th, 2010 at 9:44 am
@rp:
The government isn’t doing the lending to individuals. But yeah if the bank bails and calls in the mortgage insurance the government will go through the same steps a bank or other institution would to collect their money.
“CMHC really is no different than any other creditors and will follow the standard collection processes available. Essentially you would be looking at them trying to collect by directly making arrangements with you. If that fails then you will be looking at being subject to a garnishee.” – Barton Goth (Bankruptcy Lawyer)
January 29th, 2010 at 1:14 am
Re: Johnny O
http://matrix.millersamuel.com/?p=6067
Also the owner occupied dwelling isnt 30% its 55% and a big contributor is manhatten wich is ~20%. However business rentals are a good reason for this which must compete with regular properties; vancouver doesnt have that. In order for that to develop I really think you need some major industries (and dope doesnt count for downtown).
January 29th, 2010 at 12:17 am
#114 @Drachen: Are you telling me that the government will come after people it lent money to? Yeah right.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
@Johnny O: I would be leveraging myself to the tilt
Is that like a hybrid of leverage to the hilt and leverage to the tits?
January 28th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
@ReadyToPop:
Greaterfool.ca is back up now.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
@ReadyToPop:
I don’t know, it was running yesterday. Perhaps Bob Rennie put out a web ‘contract’ on that site? I’m sure it will be up again soon enough.
@Johnny O:
“I think your alter ego is Drachen.”
Well I probably do have enough ego for two people but I certainly don’t have that much time to waste. Plus, I go on vacation occasionally, you might have noticed I didn’t post at all for three or so weeks around Christmas.
Anyhow, I can guarantee you I’m not him.
“Worst case scenario, if you can’t wait it out till properties recover (and they always do, look at Argentina after their 2001 bond defaults) then you tell the bank to GFY and throw them the keys.”
This is not California, the bank has the very legitimate right to come after you for everything you own, your only recourse would be to declare bankruptcy. And of course buying a house with 5% down and the intent to never make any monthly payments is almost certainly considered a form of fraud in Canada. But good luck with that plan! Write to me from Jail and tell me how it worked out for you!
January 28th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
“70% of households renting”
Vancouver west end downtown false creek north
false creek south according to election stats
are approx 70% renters and 30% owner/occupied
we are Manhattanized already, nothing new here!
January 28th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
@Johnny O:
70% of households renting is not the same as 70% of individually titled dwellings being rented. Multi-unit rentals have to be rented (duh) and NYC has the highest % of these out of total dwellings of any US city. This issue here is how many dwellings which could be owner-occupied are rented out, and I haven’t seen any evidence that NYC is higher than any other US city in this respect.
That’s a question of fact. As to your other points, which are conjectures, you have no facts to back them up.
As for alternate identities, I must admit to using “patriotzed” when I’m away from my own computer so I don’t have to log onto WordPress. But that’s all.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
johny:
[1] dope industry – this is new is it? Wasn’t around prior to the 2002 start of the boom? Next myth please.
[2] “I can’t find the source” – ie: you don’t have a source. Please return when you have one to support your “opinion”.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
@patriotz:
Btw, patriotz, I think your alter ego is Drachen. If i’m correct in that statement (and only you would know) then you better start believing in what I say to be dead on.
Look, I’m not a bull or else I would be leveraging myself to the tilt to buy more Vancouver properties. It’s not my point.
But I would at least like to educate those that think waiting while inflation destroys your hard earned savings is not very smart. (I liked your posting ‘rp’ but giving up is not the solution) People have to get creative to get in the market.
Patriotz, in response to Q 1-4:
1. who’s going to buy the homes vacated? C’mon! look at who is importing their new found wealth!!! It’s also been published (christ I’m bad with my references!) that the dope industry is bigger than tourism in this province. Guess where that cash is being laundered?
2. See (1) That’s correct. They’re the ones buying up property.
3. those rental dwellings are going to be rented with the other unfortunates not wanting to accept reality. There is NO over capacity in rentals in Vancouver or else all those midget height basement suites would not be rented out by those who depend on them.
I like to call this new class of Vancouver landlords living in their over-priced decriped homes, Slum Dog Millionaires!
4. NYC’s 70% rental ownership, I believe it was in the NYTimes posting or the economist. F@%&! I can’t find the source, you’ll have to dig. But yes, that’s the state Vancouver is getting to. The Elite will own most of the properties.
5. Finally, the The Stuyvesant Town in NYC which has 11,000 rental units. You read it correctly, shit I even have my source (look below)did a strategic default because they used $5.4B of leveraged money — meaning they stiffed someone else — to buy a property that is apparently only valued at $1.8B
Well Intrawest did the very same thing with their Whistler investments, yet you don’t see the property values crashing. It’s someone else’s money that was mal-invested.
Let me give you a hint, if you get a 5% down/35 year CMHC approved loan, and the 5% down is smaller than let’s say the next 2 year’s worth of rental, why do you care if the market crashed? Worst case scenario, if you can’t wait it out till properties recover (and they always do, look at Argentina after their 2001 bond defaults) then you tell the bank to GFY and throw them the keys. You’ll simply be back in a rental and you’ll only be able to eat craft dinners and drive a $200 throw-away car. Forget going to restaurants as you’ll have no credit card for about 1 year!
That’s not a bad price to pay for a failed investment!!hehe
But in all likely hood, it will not happen that way. You’ll just become another disgruntled home owner sweating it out to pay your property taxes like the rest of us as we see our local politicians throwing themselves lavish parties such at the Olympics at tax payer’s expense. That’s it.
God speed renters
http://blogs.wsj.com/developme.....sant-town/
January 28th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
@Drachen
What happened to greaterfool.ca?
Browser says:
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
January 28th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
“they have carved out a huge lot out of the bush along the river and there looks to be thousands of white vehicles sitting there”
They didn’t “carve” anything out. It has been a vacant lot waiting for development for years now. At least now they’re using it for something.
Guess what’s slated to be built there? It rhymes with “Rondo”.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
RP
scooters and canes…that is awesome
make sure you load up on defibulators, ensure, and dentures while you are at it…
January 28th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
#101 @pricedoutfornow: re: waiting.
B.S. I look at all this free money, and the interest rates offered for my savings, which are well below the rate of inflation, never mind house price inflation, and I ask: why the FUCK am I paying for this ?! I’m young, working hard, trying to raise a family, and we’re just being left behind so that everyone can get cheap financing for shit they can’t afford. Most of these people are older and already “rich”.
I just don’t give a shit anymore. This country can fuck itself. When you can’t save your own country’s money and expect to get anything for it later, a fundamental trust has been broken. What’s the point of working? Seriously, just buy something someone else may want later and get rich. I’m going to buy all the canes and scooters so those baby boomers are fucked.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Double top
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A double top is a reversal chart pattern which is defined by a chart where a financial instrument makes a run up to a particular level, then drops back from that level, then makes a second run at that level, and then finally drops back off again.
[edit] Significance for traders
The double top pattern shows demand outpacing supply (buyers predominate) up to the first top, causing prices to rise. The supply/demand situation then reverses; supply outpaces demand (sellers predominate), causing prices to fall. After a price “valley”, buyers again predominate and prices rise. If traders see that prices are not pushing past their level at the first top, sellers may again prevail, lowering prices and causing a double top to form. It is generally regarded as a bearish sign if prices drop below their level at the earlier valley between the two tops.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
@pricedoutfornow:
“First Garth says RE’s only going down 15%”
15% THIS YEAR Pricedout, only for this year.
Even if that were the entire fall for Canada if all properties fell to an equal level (3.15 median multiples I believe it worked out to) it would mean nearly a two thirds drop in real estate prices here!
January 28th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
@Drachen: I can give you 10 twice for your first and second post regarding same comment and there is lots of matterial in your post that is useful for the readers.
Regarding your request or order for source or base is not really a requirement.Why? Because if you look at 4.5% prediction for economy growth in Vancouver one can easily take it as opinion.
So you or Logic were able to creat an opinion against CB of Canada,You could have use any of the source like un employements,Higher mls listings,Flood of lisings for rents,Lower rents,People are moving out of Vancouver or reverse all the source of information in favour of Vancouver economy growth 2010 that will add the numbers inline with prediction.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
@Carioca Canuck:
Some assets crash therefore Real Estate will crash is not really compelling CC, in fact it’s not even a logically sound construct.
But ALL asset bubbles crash and Vancouver RE is demonstrably a bubble so it WILL crash works. It might be a little more complicated and the case for proving it’s a bubble takes some work to explain but it’s a logically sound argument and I have never yet seen the bulls come up with a comparatively sound counter-argument.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
It’s been a depressing couple of days. First Garth says RE’s only going down 15%, then we hear the BOC may not raise interest rates for another year and a half. What’s a bear to do? Go out and buy that townhouse for $400k, at 2% interest and hope the rates don’t go up anytime soon? But wait…logic must prevail at some point. And I’m hearing more and more stories about friends and family members with debt problems. Come on…it’s gotta end sometime. And sometimes when you’re just about ready to give up, well, that’s when it’ll really happen. Just wait.