BC, hype, Open Topic, prices, supply

Do we have what it takes to draw ‘top talent’?

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There’s an article over at the Globe and Mail about the difficulty faced by Tech startups in Vancouver – apparently it can be a challenge to attract top talent.

Vancouver is awash in startups with several poised to go public, transforming British Columbia’s economy as they grow. But for Canada’s lifestyle capital to emerge as a world-class tech hub it needs to figure out how to persuade top executives to actually move there (because hey, Silicon Valley has mountains and ocean too)

Meanwhile there’s a local company called Telus that just lost a CEO because he didn’t want to live in Western Canada.

Can you believe that? Not wanting to live in BC?!

Boggles the mind.

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Aboot_Tom

@59 there could be many different reasons why Tommie refi’d his property. – needed to pay other higher interest debt – his future looks bright having a plump db pension as MP – MPs planning for a 50% pay raise to ‘retain’ quality career politicians(haha! like bc libs did under Campbell, look how well that turned out. But at least they can now afford a mortgage out our tax expense. f@cking leaches) – using gov’t insider info to make well timed investment decisions(just like the conservative mps who’s dinner conversation with their spouse got them into hot water.’wink-wink, this shouldn’t ever leave our house.’ – probably knows something about a debt-jubelee given the absurdity of our housing market – or maybe none of the above, which would mean he doesn’t know how to manage his money (highly unlikely given the… Read more »

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Zero Down Forty

@#55

Yes. Thomas Mulcair has no vested interest in keeping home prices high. I mean, it’s not like he’s taken advantage of inflated values and the lowest interest rates in history to take masses of equity out of his home, like so many other Canadians have, adding fuel to our debt bubble.

Oh wait….

“Mulcair remortgaged home 11 times”
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/28/mulcair-remortgaged-home-11-times

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Wowza

Mulcair is suggesting that the NDP will become a massive landlord. That’s not good.

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Madashell

“190,000 Canadians in Hong Kong just lost voting rights – if treated as second-class citizens, will they act like them?”
https://twitter.com/ianjamesyoung70?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fgreaterfoolvancouver.blogspot.com%2F&profile_id=471426839&tw_i=609118410773909505&tw_p=embeddedtimeline&tw_w=278078079472115712

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Polozi Scheme

I’ll vote Conservative if they promise (promise hahahaha) to do something about this story: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/vancouver-international-airport-acts-as-major-entry-port-for-millions-in-cash-smuggled-by-mostly-chinese-citizens

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Polozi Scheme

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vancouverites-for-Affordable-Housing/883148868417665?fref=nf

Olivia Chow tweeted ‪#‎donthave1million‬ in support of our campaign and Tom Mulcair talked at length on live TV in Vancouver about the NDP’s promise of getting the federal gov’t back into housing. While affordable housing should not be a partisan issue, the support from the NDP has been striking.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/real-estate-dreams-dashed-priced-out-and-resigned-to-renting-1.3180437

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Garth T

You racists. HAM does not exist. You are hurting my business. HAM doesn’t exist. Sell your house. It won’t end well. Then invest with me. I only charge 1%. :/

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Oracle

Egg hunt is a troll. The stupid naive idiots believe anything thrown their way.

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Oracle

Some people are beyond stupid. Still debating and getting hoodwinked into thinking Vancouver prices have nothing to do with foreign money.

Just naive idiots or clever RE insiders.

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Oracle

All the major dealerships in Vancouver are now accepting Union Pay cards. But car in cash in China money.

It’s a free for all. No one cares where the money is coming from anymore.

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Zero Down Forty

I remember reading a Sothebys report showing homes over $3mil made up about 5% of sales in all of Metro Van. That was a year or two ago.

Checking right now on MLS there are only about 980 homes listed for sale out of about 14,000. About 7% of all listings, so the 5% range of sales sounds about right.

If overseas buyers make up 70% of of the +$3mil homes, than that’s only 3-4% of all sales.

Hardly could create a huge ripple effect.

Sounds like more media hype.

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Shlomo

@26

So that G&M piece cites a two-fold cause to the problem:
1. Luxury market dominated by foreign richy rich
2. Non-luxury market dominated by local shlubs pigging out on cheap credit

The solution is two-fold too then
1. Stop foreign richy-rich by insisting on proof of Canadian income + Canadian income tax paid for 5+ years
2. Increase down payment to 50% on all new purchases, if you can’t raise interest rates to 10%

That ought to soothe the panting lust for RE in this burg!

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Egg Hunt

It is lame, please down vote me if you want.
But just don’t want some of you think I am lying about my income.
After corporate DBP pension contributions, RSP auto contribution (company match, too), medical plan, and other expenses
paid, my net average pay is around $12K per month last year.

My spouse’s fried claimed she makes $200 ~$300 per day average, she works seven days / week, from 10am to 6pm, something like that.

It is different annual income, but she pays almost no tax, she bragged about it,
I was just stunned.

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Egg Hunt

Forgot important word…. my spouse is not hair stylist

>close to my spouse’s FRIEND’S cash business hair salon in Victoria >street, she is making $200+ per day, sigh….

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Egg Hunt

#44 Realist I was not here in ’70s but totally believe you. I came here in 1991, apparently loved this city, unplanned plan changed to long stay till today. My spouse is pretty much same way, came in 1994 from different country. Btw, I did mention about our income in one of the post above, but my intention is nothing at all to brag about, in fact, after tax income is close to my spouse’s cash business hair salon in Victoria street, she is making $200+ per day, sigh…. But wanted to express I am not 100% happy with this city any more, not because we don’t make enough money to survive, or cannot afford the multi million dollars house, we are ok, comfortable with whatever we have here, we pretty much can do whatever we want to do, we… Read more »

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Son of Ponzi

#42
HAM vs JUICE.
This could turn into a dog’s breakfast.

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realist

@ 41 Egg Hunt
“Honestly, it seems people in Vancouver have nothing else to talk about.
Tax, family and kids, home renovation, house prices appreciation, outdoor activities, skiing and hiking, dining out…”

Until the late 70’s, Vancouver was a backwater without any “world class” pretensions, other than natural beauty and recreational opportunities. Yet in some regards, it comprised a more diverse population than today. Many successful dinner parties took place without any mention of RE…now, imagine that in 2015?!

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Best place on meth

“Dan Scarrow, a Macdonald vice-president who runs the firm’s Shanghai office, says buyers from China are having a clear impact on house prices – but only in the luxury market, and not on broader real estate prices, which have risen for other reasons.”

What an idiot, these luxury purchases have no effect on the broader market?

What does he think the seller of the luxury house does with all that money – suddenly start renting or buy another house in a less expensive area thereby driving up the prices there as well.

RIPPLE EFFECT, Dan. I guess they don’t teach that in the 5 week course.

I always feel a little bit dumber after reading the painful ramblings of these people.

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Egg Hunt

Btw, we are family person, but in our countries, we don’t talk much about out family and kids outside of our home.

We love our family and we love our children, but you know, everyone does!

Honestly, it seems people in Vancouver have nothing else to talk about.
Tax, family and kids, home renovation, house prices appreciation, outdoor activities, skiing and hiking, dining out…

People have freedom to talk or do anything they want, that’s first.
We just kind of tired of not much varieties in topics here in Vancouver though…… sorry!

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realist

@ 36 w “I believe in HAM but even I had no idea that almost a quarter of houses are gobbled up by HAM.”

For some districts of “Greater Vancouver”, one quarter currently being purchased by HAM is a considerable underestimate.

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realist

@ 26 Best place on meth “”Hellfire and locusts will descend upon us.” I was going to say something, but…never mind ”

perhaps you were going to say, the wrong tense? “Hellfire and locusts are descending upon us”? “…have descended upon us”??

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Egg Hunt

Me and my spouse paid $171,010.94 exactly total in income tax alone in 2014. This is not income, but income tax paid only. (Myself alone paid $155.632.06) We are expected making about 15% more each this year. We are here in Vancouver for last twenty years, both immigrant, English is not our first language as you can tell. We’ve been working hard enough to get this, my job is very diversified, you never know what’s happening in future, but stable outlook for at least next 5~6 years. Why are we in Vancouver? Kids, both in secondary schools now. It doesn’t mean we found education in Vancouver is excellent, but just don’t want them to change schools in our neighbourhood. Nothing more, foods are ok, we don’t do extensive outdoor activities, we travel a lot, people’s perspective here sucks, honestly. So… Read more »

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w

China Roils Markets Second Day as Yuan Cut by 1.6%; Bonds Rally

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-11/asian-futures-tip-another-down-day-as-yuan-move-rattles-markets

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w

“The firm said mainland Chinese buyers accounted for 21 per cent of the transactions last year in which homes sold for between $1-million and $3-million”

You’ll have a hard time finding a house in Vancouver, North Van, Burnaby, or Richmond for less than a million. I believe in HAM but even I had no idea that almost a quarter of houses are gobbled up by HAM.

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