Friday Free-for-all! Feb 26 2016

It’s time for another Friday Free-for-all!

This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.

Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–BOC raises flag on debt
–Local buyers pay $750k over ask
–70s vancouver tourism ad
–January sales hit 6 year high
–A short or long term rental?
–Shorter border line-ups
–Inflation up, spending down
–

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

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Steve-O

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Click to flag and open «Comment Reporting» form. You can choose reporting category and send message to website administrator. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Alright here is a fun one. We’ve all seen the house in Kits that sold for $735k over asking for a final price of $4.23 million CAD. If you had a cool $4.23 million, what would you buy instead?

I’ll kick it off with this one and you’d still have $1.55 million CAD extra to cover air fare.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5517-Kalanianaole-Hwy-Honolulu-HI-96821/616239_zpid/

Member

patriotz

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Or buy this property and use the extra mil (USD) for shopping:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/475-S-Peck-Dr-Beverly-Hills-CA-90212/20511463_zpid/

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patriotz

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Communist-themed park a new feature of China’s ‘red tourism’

By the time he turned two, Little Gaoxing could sing The East is Red, a Communist Revolution-era tune that lauds Mao Zedong as “the people’s great saviour!”
Now four, his repertoire has expanded to more than 20 similar songs, including Cut the (Japanese) Devil’s Head Off with the Broadsword…
But Little Gaoxing – a nickname used by his family – is also an emblem of modern China, whose government under President Xi Jinping is raising the volume on its efforts to breed party loyalty and making an ideological turn back toward authoritarian Communism.

Member

space889

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So this is related to our RE market how??? And this is not race baiting how??

Member

Best place on meth

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Communism is not a race.

And these brainwashed, western hating robots should be banned from immigrating here.

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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BPOM….were you sodomized as a child ?

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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patriotz
and your point is ? …wait I know, you are a bitter little losa, same size as that thing you are hold in your hand…mommy help me…

Member

southseacompany

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“It’s not just Vancouver. Most urban Canadians upset over soaring housing prices: poll”, Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/just+vancouver+most+urban+canadians+upset+over+soaring+housing+prices+poll/11746578/story.html?__lsa=b854-abc5

“While a high majority of Vancouverites are frustrated over real estate prices, a new Angus Reid poll suggests that most Canadians living in cities think they pay too much for housing.”

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patriotz

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Note that the poll did not ask respondents whether they wanted prices to go down. It’s one thing to say that prices are too high, it’s another to want them to go down if you already own.

Isn’t that the question that really matters?

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ChinaOne

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Does not matter. Your leader Christy and Gregor say 1 million more people coming here in 20 year. About 700,000 will be my cousin and they have lots money they will bring. We buy more detached house.

My cousin rich and buy cars too. Local Workers should take bus and train only. They should pay more tax to fund our healthcare and school. my cousin probably not work here. Just investment.

We love Christy.

Member

space889

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You think you are cute & funny but this is getting tiresome, BPOM / Yunak / Vangrl / Westside Realtor in disguise.

Member

Yunak

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For the first time I would have to agree with you, this ChinaOne posts are tiresome and not exactly entertaining. However you were utterly wrong to relate BPOM / Yunak / Vangrl with it. You completely failed to recognize the style and content which has absolutely nothing in common with cheesy kind of humor. Spacey next time try a bit harder and results will follow…

Member

Best place on meth

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Don’t be so hard on Victor.

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voter

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christy clark love you back.xoxoxo

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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China One
and your point is ? …wait I know, you are a bitter little losa, same size as that thing you are hold in your hand…mommy help me…

Member

gordholio

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Oooh, I’ll play.

You could buy this:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/4071-Los-Altos-Dr_Pebble-Beach_CA_93953_M13190-86352

and this:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1175-Arroyo-Dr_Pebble-Beach_CA_93953_M12039-34590

and still have a few bucks left over.

Of course, you’d have to put up with being walking distance from Pebble Beach and a 5-minute drive from one of the prettiest stretches of waterfront in North America:

http://cdn.gnarlyfix.com/wp-content/gallery/outdoor-photos/monterey_del_monte_sunset.jpg

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null

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The California Town Where Chinese Millionaires House their Kids—and Mistresses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoeUxzUR4ec

Guest

Runawayscreaming

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Arcadia = Little Vancouver. That is so cute!

Guest

ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

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Vancouver lite.

Member

Yunak

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Sooner or later some sort of pesticide will have to take a place. This isn’t organic growth on North American soil.

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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Yunak
you are a perfect example of what pesticide can do to some one …go cry to yo mommy about your little weiner…

Guest

OpenCourse

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Uncle killed his two teenage nephews in Arcadia, escaped to Hong Kong.
http://abc7.com/news/teens-killed-in-arcadia;-uncle-wanted-in-deaths-boards-plane-to-china/1170634/

Guest

BubbleTea

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There seems a lot of murders, kidnapping with the PR Chinese immigrants. Remember the millionaire that was chopped up in North Van or the Dead guy found in the Porsche or the girl found in pieces in the suitcase.

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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Bubble Tea
and you are related to Pickton ?

Guest

ChinaOne

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Why hate me and cousin? We had positive vote. I just say more my cousin coming and we buy more houses. we not like stock or bond. my cousin with money not but franchise. we buy house.

i tell truth. house go up. i not lie. because Christy love us.

Guest

SickOfChinaOne

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No one is buying it anymore… you are Canadian born and bred and putting on the race costume to inflame intelligent conversation. why bother? nothing better in your life?

Guest

ChinaOne

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And Yunak here truth you like to close eyes to. Many cousin Dad from all over Asia go to Asia up to twice a year for mistress. They have many girl there. Wife and kid here. it truth. no like then close eye.

Member

Yunak

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Not bad, that means their wifes are available here, at least twice a year, while they cater to mistresses back at homeland?

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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ChinaOne was gang raped as a child…please excuse him/her/it

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Confucius

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Hey ChinaOne, I can’t wait to see all your cousins go on a rampage, just like the Stanley cup riots, but much worse when housing prices continue to the downward slope of the bubble. I’ve seen your cousins trashing housing developer building models in China, can’t wait to see them unleash their anger in Vancouver with falling prices in a non police state dictatorship because of their unsophisticated investment experience. I’ll have fresh popcorn ready while I enjoy the entertainment.

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OpenCourse

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RCMP were at the Chinese Embassy in Toronto this week.
http://tinyurl.com/j5kvvdu

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null

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They live in China’s second satellite city, so of course they should still be collecting pensions.

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null

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“continue”?

So the downward slope has started? That’s news to me.

Guest

Confucius

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“Continue to the” not “continue on the” learn to read or go back to China.

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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ChinaOne grew up in the South, can’t read with six fingers and banjo noise in the background…poor trash

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Vanco

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I am surprised at the ongoing strength of the market. Bidding 20-25% over asking on top of the 20-30% raise last year? Ok, last year maybe the cad weakening, but this? Smells fishy.

Member

paulb

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New
182
Sold
248
TI:7896

For weekly sales and/or new listings info on a specific neighbourhood/city of your interest, email me and I will customize a weekly update for you. The daily sales numbers only mean so much. Each neighbourhod and market segment can be quite different.

http://www.paulboenisch.com

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GreenSalad

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Chinese Police On the Ground in Canada Looking for Corrupt Officials
“Staggering” amount invested in Canadian real estate

https://thenanfang.com/chinese-police-secretly-investigating-money-laundering-corrupt-officials-canada/

Interesting indeed….anyone have an update on this?

Member

ostritch

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These nonsense posts are a sign it’s so over. Has anyone followed along with what’s selling in their preferred hood? It’s astronomical. It’s frightening. I have no idea what this city will be like in a decade. Either tits up with deadbeat home-moaners after the Chinese have abandoned their properties after a collapse or twice the price it is today. Either way, it’s no happy ending.

Member

Ulsterman

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That’s the crazy thing. Do you just give up, join in, and see the prices double in another decade? And before everyone gets in a tizzy, people reading this blog 10 years ago felt the same way as the new comers do now. “It JUST CAN’T get worse.” “OK, so it’s gone nuts, i missed the buying opportunity, BUT the day of reckoning is just a year or so away.” This was the general sentiment whether people will admit it or not. Not a single bear even contemplated that prices would double again, so that at the peak of the madness prices could leap another 30% YOY. with 20% over asking commonplace. The only solace i take from the current degree of madness is that I’ve stopped even thinking about buying. If my current rental SFU fell by 50% it… Read more »

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GreenSalad

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@ Ulsterman

http://www.rentcafe.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Fotolia_6832569_Subscription_XL.jpg

Great curb appeal……needs some TLC……near schools and bus……

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GreenSalad

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……and she’s STILL checking the data……

https://my91yearoldmom.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hell-frozen-over.jpg

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voter

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Very efficient floor plan .

Guest

ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

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Concrete foundation with natural wood highlights.

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Confucius

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This is what bubbles do. They defy all logic and prices go to incredible levels. This is human nature at work, just as it was for the tulip bubble. Baron Rothschild built his fortune on selling too early. He saw when things were overvalued and pulled out. The herd would stampede on without him and off a cliff. The price of a home in this city is just not worth it at these prices under almost every metric. The ponzi scheme of China will also burst. These two things are clear. I am not going to put my hard earned money into this bubble. If I am wrong then I’ll just have to accept that, but I made my decision with logic, not emotions.

Guest

Shut It Down Already

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The problem with the Bears from a few years ago is that they wouldn’t admit that their buy vs rent calculations were wrong. They included mortgage principal as an expense, and concluded that houses were overpriced. They then latched on to a historical price they fancied and declared it “normal”, then brought out “reversion to mean” arguments without realizing the possibility that houses were significantly underpriced in the past.

Now they’re holding on, hoping to see that same low price return. Even if a huge crash arrives they’ll still wait on the sidelines as their whole method of valuation/analysis is completely flawed. Despite being told this about a billion times they still stand firmly behind their predictions, and attack anybody who dares to disagree.

Member

ostritch

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I have more respect for a person who admits they’re wrong and does something different rather than the one bear who will say they are right twenty years hence when house prices fall back to 2018 levels Garth comes to mind as do a few others here.

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p123

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I admit I was wrong as well. Now need to find a way to make some money back. A crash isn’t going to happen anytime soon it looks like. I wish I bought earlier as well, would have been in a better situation having owned. Even if we were right and prices do go down, we’ve been wrong for too long to make it worth it.

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Confucius

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Who’s calculations? Not mine, renting was cheaper and still is with all the costs included. Buffet didn’t touch tech stocks because they had absurd valuations for companies with no profits. Tulips were absolutely insane. It probably seemed normal for people to be buying tulips for double their years salary. Vancouver’s housing prices probably seem normal and make a lot of sense to you. I’m not saying you are stupid, just human. Newton, one of the most intelligent men in human history went flat broke from the south sea bubble. People buy when prices are going up. People also don’t sell and hold out for higher prices when prices are rising. This causes a domino effect and rapidly escalating prices. This is human nature.

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Shut It Down Already

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That’s the Bears’ favourite trick – fabricating a whole bunch of unrealistic “costs”. Including mortgage principal.

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Confucius

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Maybe Garth, but he sells financial services. I did the math for myself including principal. The market had worked out for you so far, but people ignoring fundamental value only creates bubbles.

Guest

bestplaceonearth

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don’t forget opportunity cost, and fundamental calculation. remember years ago, VHB used the chocolate analysis vs buying houses. and now, another genius uses the tulip vs buying houses.

i tell you, if you hand over the house in kitsilano to these bears for free, they still calculate the property tax and insurance vs. their rent, just to see which one makes more bear-economical sense.

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Confucius

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You’re right. You should buy a lot more property.

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

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“It’s frightening. I have no idea what this city will be like in a decade.”

In a decade? It’s already completely fucked.

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Loon

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I’m no longer in to predictions.
I’m all about understanding how we got here.

– low interest rates
– non existent foreign ownership controls
– desirable local conditions for wealthy foreigners and other Canadians
– relaxed immigration policies
– Canada as a safe haven for wealth
– creative local real estate cartel sales reporting (prices only go up even when going down)
– whole industries built around, building, marketing, selling and financing real estate
– a no-fail mentality perpetuated in the local population
– low inventory

Anything I missed ?

Guest

Confucius

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Sir John Templeton
“To buy when others are despondently selling and sell when others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude and pays the greatest reward.”

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david

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Turns out I and many others were wrong, wrong wrong. Vancouver was NOTa bubble, as much as a money laundering scheme, one that is now so big and so important to BCs economy — heck, Canada’s pathetic ally poor economy! — that it is “too big to fail”.
So the various governments will sit by and deny what they know.
And all Canadians (like me) will simply regret and resent that we can never retire to the one piece of urbana with a decently warm climate in all of this frozen wasteland we call Canada.

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Confucius

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There are nicer and cheaper places on the island with less rain.

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david

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“Urbana”…urban…ie. a city.

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Confucius

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Victoria is a city. You can still buy a house near the core for around the average price of a house in Canada. Also, almost any average retiree can still afford a condo here. Condos are in more convenient locations and are better suited for old people. Most really old people are in condos or townhouses.

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patriotz

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The average price of a house in Canada is skewed by the GTA, metro Vancouver, and Calgary. These are really the only markets in Canada that are more expensive than Victoria. It’s well above the median for the country, and by far the most expensive city of its size. But it’s certainly more reasonable than Vancouver.

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david

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Victoria is not a city. It is a living morgue.

Member

patriotz

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Victoria’s median age is high for a city its size, but it has not increased over the last 10 years more than for Canada as a whole. Which means it’s no longer a net destination for retirees. Compare with Peterborough and Barrie, which are.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-214-x/2015000/tbl/tbl12-eng.htm

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

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People are dying to move there.

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ostritch

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Agreed.

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patriotz

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Just who in Canada do you think aspires to retire in Vancouver?

In any case, some retirees rent, you know.

Guest

david

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You said two things, both of which made me laugh. Thanks.

Guest

Poet

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Retiring in Vancouver will be soon like retiring in some small to mid size city in China. Why would you that???

Member

ostritch

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It’s possible money laundering machines can pop as well. It’s pretty scary all around.

Guest

wwwww

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Casino cheating nets Vancouver woman criminal charge

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/casino-cheating-nets-vancouver-woman-criminal-charge-1.3466037

Guest

Cousin of ChinaOne

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ChinaOne tell me to post this as last post since he now banned.

“You refuse to see truth so ban ban ban. Many cousin come here and buy house. Immigration minister triple parent application last month. Not double it to 10,000. Read article. But you hate truth. So bye. What you say, group think make you guys even more separated from reality. Article say “They had signalled the move was coming in January, when rather than cutting off intake of new applications at 5,000, they accepted over 14,000.”

http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/9332268

Member

Best place on meth

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It appears that in the 6 months since this story was published, the money laundering has only intensified and has reached a fever pitch.

http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2015/08/25/chinese-money-laundering-in-canadian-real-estate/

It can’t continue indefinitely though, it’ll burn out and then we’ll see panicked faces across the city.

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voter

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Why wouldn’t it continue .The Chinese Government can just print as much money as they want and what’s to stop them from sending 1 million party members to Vancouver to buy property.Certainly not our government.

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OpenCourse

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Their banks are already printing fake bills of exchange.\

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patriotz

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Yuan doesn’t buy you much anywhere except Zimbabwe.

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voter

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Okay, i guess they’ll just use all the canadian and american dollars we;ve been paying for all that junk that the we buy from them.

Guest

Bestplace4nazis

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BPOM = bitter loser, gang banged by cousins, anger all the time….dude, where are my trailer keys?

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null

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Chinese New Year 2016 at Robson Square Ice Rink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIF-P26STWg

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GreenSalad

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Advisory group named in wake of “shadow flipping” scandal
https://www.biv.com/article/2016/2/advisory-group-named-wake-shadow-flipping-scandal/

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null

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https://media.giphy.com/media/10KEZs0WcRerrG/giphy.gif

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patriotz

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Are you trying to bring Korea into the discussion, or are you just too thick to recognize that writing?

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space889

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Not much different from your baiting.

Member

patriotz

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There is no scandal. This is just a fake issue that is being pushed to take attention away from the government’s policy of continuing to inflate prices.

Guest

Runawayscreaming

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Even if a real investigation of Chinese shadow flipping were conducted (Ha, ha, ha – that will never happen – it’s Vancouver!) it would be too late to fix the sorry state of affairs that Vancouver has become:

biv.com: Peter Ladner: Real estate flippers driving city to ‘economic ghost town’ status

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p123

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Interest Rates not going up in the US it looks like

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/when-will-interest-rates-bottom-out/2016/02/26/2f148b14-d71d-11e5-9823-02b905009f99_story.html

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SHHHH

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http://49.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3x3h2kaII1rvwq31o1_500.gif

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space889

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Don’t dash bear’s last great hope.

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southseacompany

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“G20 to say world needs to look beyond ultra-easy policy for growth”, Reuters

http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKCN0W004T

“SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The world’s top economies declared on Saturday that they need to look beyond ultra-low interest rates and printing money to shake the global economy out of its torpor, while renewing their focus on structural reform to spark activity.”

Member

Best place on meth

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Looks like a bunch of drunk Christy Clark voters just showed up at VCI to trash the place.

Guest

Shhhh

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Shock in Chinese village as women’s corpses stolen for use in “ghost weddings”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/12176054/Shock-in-Chinese-village-as-womens-corpses-stolen-for-use-in-ghost-weddings.html

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Runawayscreaming

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I fail to see what relevance ghost weddings have to this forum. Ghost weddings are illegal in China. On the other hand I suppose renting an apartment in Vancouver could be considered to be relevant to a ghost wedding. One falls in love with beautiful Vancouver with the intent to marry her by purchasing a modest home but before the marriage takes place real estate speculators and money launderers kill Vancouver and take possession of her corpse for nefarious real estate transactions. The shadow-flipping of ghost brides may well be the precedent for the shadow-flipping of Vancouver houses: “One woman died over the lunar new year in February 2012 and was sold by her family to the family of a recently deceased young man for about £3,700; soon afterwards, police caught a graverobber selling her twice-exhumed body to another family…”

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No Money Down

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Comment from Macrobusiness http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/02/weekend-links-27-28-february-2016/ Looked at a few houses on the Northshore of Sydney this morning ……..definitely a more subdued atmosphere …………the throngs of pushing and shoving Chinese of last year are noticeably absent ………and the buyers look more like family people looking for a home ……… Asking prices still in the sphere of the ridiculous These are comments about auction sales. Supports what I am seeing here. HAM are MIA. Looks like 2015 was the big push to get capital out of China, and that had a huge impact on SFH prices in Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, HK… Seems that is done, and the current activity in Vancouver is momentum buying from locals. I have been poking around westside 2br condo open houses in $450k to $650k range. Millenial couples, downsizers and investors. The smell of fear from the millenials… Read more »

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ostritch

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Is it the end of money from China or is it the beginning of Australian policy to prevent flipping in the SFH arena. Unlike ours, their government has actually done something, and passed a law under which they have brought their first prosecution.

Also I think they’ve had a multi-year run up in prices these past two-three years.

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patriotz

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What Oz has done is limit foreigners to buying new properties (which includes new houses on the sites of teardowns) – which means that just the kind of foreign buying that people are upset about in Vancouver is legal there too.

How about some details of this “prosecution” – and making the owner sell doesn’t count.

Vancouver Condo Info

Friday Free-for-all! Feb 26 2016

Bubble? What Bubble?