On CMHC’s Foreign Ownership… About 8000 condos were bought in Vancouver in 2015 so far. There are about 80,000 condos in Vancouver in total. Using the CMHC’s own numbers, that means that the share of foreign-owned condos went from about 2700 to 4300. That means net 1600 condos were sold to foreigners in 2015 so far. That is 20 per cent of all condo sales! Suddenly foreign ownership doesn’t look so harmless. And this analysis ignores the first two problems I mentioned above. Namely that we’re just talking about condos here. The actual effect on all housing including townhomes and detached properties is likely even higher! We could easily be looking at 30 per cent-plus of housing demand in Vancouver coming from abroad. And if we make the added assumption that foreign demand is less price sensitive than domestic demand,… Read more »

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Vancouver plan to support displaced tenants not good enough: critics

The City of Vancouver will provide extra compensation to displaced tenants. But many renters argue the policy doesn’t go far enough.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2015/12/10/vancouver-doesnt-help-displaced-tenants-enough-critics-say.html

With COCs priced out, the divide between renters and landlords is growing bigger and deeper.

@ 32 “Vancouver realtor is selling homes directly to buyers in China

http://www.news1130.com/2015/12/10/vancouver-realtor-is-selling-homes-directly-to-buyers-in-china/”

he probably got a grant from Christy’s government to go over there. Part of her new $100 Million small business initiative.

Did Paulb give up? Wouldn’t blame him.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/john-ivison-liberals-set-to-tighten-home-ownership-rules Tightening up the downpayment rules – might have an effect on condos, but I’m skeptical it matters for SFH. Details are expected tomorrow morning.

Elvince, those who shorted HCG back in 2012 got taken to the cleaners. Ask patriotz. Back then everybody thought it was a sure thing because that crash was right around the corner.

Posted on Garth’s blog but got deleted without even a mention.

Posted: A Very Small fraction of CMHC mortgages are amounts greater than $425,000 as per their stats. Don’t think many people buy $700,000 houses with 7% down. Those down payment changes are hot air.”

Scary how that guy can live with lies.

Vancouver realtor is selling homes directly to buyers in China

http://www.news1130.com/2015/12/10/vancouver-realtor-is-selling-homes-directly-to-buyers-in-china/

Internet is out in W Van. Will update in the am!

>How did they short the canadian RE? How exactly do you short any RE market? The best proxy would be to short HCG.to (any of the big 5 deal in a whole lot more than just RE), and those who did that have made out pretty fine these last 12 months, albeit not just because of RE.

so they got rich despite having a faulty hypothesis. imagine if you guys were so lucky. you’d all be billionaires by now, lol.

Taking the S&P500 or the US FTSE is NOT cherry picking. It IS the stock market. Im not taking some obscure biotech fund, those are broad based based, moron.

@BBB: How did they short the canadian RE? How exactly do you short any RE market? The best proxy would be to short HCG.to (any of the big 5 deal in a whole lot more than just RE), and those who did that have made out pretty fine these last 12 months, albeit not just because of RE. We’ll declare cap gains when we decide to sell, which is not right now. For whatever isn’t in a TSFA or RRSP, that is. We’ve all paid taxes on dividends, interest and distributions though. That’s a lot better than those amateur landlords who keep losing money. Of course they don’t pay taxes on their leaky underwater condo. @Space: We’ve all been screaming from the top of our lungs for the last 12 months (make that 36 months) that the CAD was gonna… Read more »

@Yunak – Sigh, so we learn from Caucasians on how to deal with car accident victims and you still blame us?

Btw, lots of non-Chinese in Taiwan, HK, China would do the same thing in same situations to avoid paying damages. So I really don’t see what the diff is between Chinese and the non-Chinese.

@elvince – You pick one US index fund that you say beat general Van RE market, instead of a Cdn index fund, or many other index ETFs that failed to beat Van RE, that is cherry picking.

BTW, QQQ YTD return in US$ is only 10% while Van West SFH went up like 17% to 25%. I don’t think anyone forsaw Cdn$ dropping 30% at the start of the year so that doesn’t really count.

@space889: Taking an INDEX fund as an example is the exact opposite of cherry picking.

If you don’t know what an index fund is, then you have nothingto add to this conversation. Or any conversation related to money, really.

bull market in stocks is clearly over. where will the money go next?

commodities? currency? real estate?

@elvince
for most people stock market is synonymous of a casino whereas a home is a home, perception is what it is.
While the stock market might have gone up 30%, those gains can diminish / disappear within a month, this can be true for RE as well but history is full of stock market horror stories rather than RE busts.
I am not giving financial advice, just pointing out the fact that negative rates will boost RE as they have done in countries that have neg rates already.
Talk to anyone who bought a house in Vancouver around 2000 and feel free to compare the returns, after tax if possible.

anyone declaring capital gains for 2015?

remember the hedge funds that were “shorting” canada real estate? i wonder how they’re doing now.