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BC announces new real estate rules

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The BC government has announced new rules that require purchasers to reveal citizenship details:

The new requirements, aimed at answering whether foreign ownership is driving up housing prices, go beyond the data that are supposed to be collected for Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency whenever someone is involved in a real estate transaction. Records show there is significant non-compliance among Vancouver-area real estate firms, which are required to collect the information for the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FinTRAC).

B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong said he is confident provincial auditors will be more successful. “The objective here is to get beyond the theory, get beyond the conjecture and the speculation and actually have hard data,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

They also announced new requirements to deal with bare trusts:

The new disclosure rules will also create new data on the use of bare trusts, after an investigative report in The Globe showed how such trusts may be used to transfer property ownership without paying the property transfer tax. Mr. de Jong said the data, which must be provided on the new property transfer tax return form, will be shared with Revenue Canada.

Such data are supposed to be collected under Canadian law, but a federal audit of paperwork in Vancouver realty offices found many instances where required filings were significantly lacking.

And of course the dreaded ‘shadow flipping‘:

The new regulation – which applies only to licensed realtors – will not ban contract assignment but seeks to ensure that the seller consents to such an arrangement and is the one who profits if the property is resold before the deal is closed.

So presumably the best way to continue shadow flipping is to avoid being a licensed realtor. Read the full article over at the Globe and Mail.

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[…] only have they announced new real estate rules to address many of your concerns, the minister responsible for housing will be attending a […]

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tokyoman

asking Christy clark and her gang to audit or check on anything is like asking Al Capone to do his own taxes.

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trackback

[…] discretionary income –Vancouver, stay or go? –Freak show housing market –One heck of a student loan –Loonie sinks […]

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Gustav

Speaking of economy and employment rates…

http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/9932560

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laundering man

Home of GE CEO
One of the largest companies in the world
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/photos/ge-ceo-selling-connecticut-home-for-5-500-000-slideshow/
What shit shack would you get for that in Vancouver.
Obviously not as much laundered money heading south

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Best place on meth

Connecticut does not interest the species Chinamanus Corruptus.

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Combat roach

The other way around I believe, they do not need them there and they don’t let them there. Silent regulations to support a social ecology.

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paulb

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http://www.paulboenisch.com

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bullwhip29

Carolyn “Shadow Flippin” Rogers appointed assistant superintendent of OSFI
http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/osfi-taps-senior-b-c-regulator-to-replace-departing-deputy-superintendent-mark-zelmer

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8888888

Everytime I see or hear Christy Clark I change the channel or change the radio station .I’m so sick of her, anybody else feel this way about her.

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p123

She reminds of Hillary Clinton, both completely dishonest and you can see they’re both in politics to benefit themselves only.

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bullwhip29

it is probably to her advantage if lots of people completely tune her (and the whole election campaign) out vs actually doing something about it.

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realist

O dearie me! The vixen is promoted from a mere regional to the Head Chicken Coop, having discharged her duties so well in BC. The race is on between China’s attempt to buy the world with their trillions of conjured yuan and their looming credit collapse.

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funky monkey

This guy should run for president of the USA. What a loser maybe he should work for trump. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-liberal-candidate-facing-scrutiny-over-2012-tweets-1.3578870

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Madashell

God, this BC Liberal party is scary!

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HAMster

And this loser guy is a real estate agent to boot.

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Best place on meth

Rich Coleman says everything’s ok now because the guy apologized.

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Vanco

Was listening to radio this am where they were talking about real estate. The host made comments that laundered money are entering Vancouver and gave a story where a foreigner returned to Canada after 10 years as a non resident to use benefits. (Cue the moral outrage.) My thoughts 1) there is a cottage industry that advises high net worth Canadians to become non-resident for tax purposes. people try to minimize their taxes. U.K. PM is on the Panama paper list. It’s not illegal. 2) is it laundered money? It may or may not be. In less stable jurisdiction, it is not surprising why the wealthy want to diversify to a more stable country. 3) is it fair that locals are being pushed out by wealthy foreigners? Well. There are other locals who benefited handsomely from their real estate. It’s… Read more »

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Yunak

Sorry, what’s your point here?

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Best place on meth

“is it fair that locals are being pushed out by wealthy foreigners?”

Absolutely not.

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LS in Arbutus

I also want to say that while offshore money no doubt has a big effect, it’s not just offshore money moving this market. Particularly in LANGLEY! That said, there’s this presumption that all houses bought with offshore money have no mortgage. This is not true. Non residents have to put down at least 35%. But even if they put down 100%, that money could have been borrowed somewhere else. Kind of like people who borrow their down payment. There is a huge credit bubble in China right now as well. Assuming someone arrives with a suitcase full of cash, that could be borrowed cash. Bottom line, if it all seems too good to be true, it is.

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Zero Down Forty

Every smart business man knows that when money is almost free you don’t rely on your own cash.

If you arrive with a suitcase of $1 million cash, you don’t buy one $1 million home with that cash. You put 35% down on three $ 1 million homes. Or 35% down on ten Surrey micro-condos.

Once again – the root cause for this distortion in asset prices is the cheapest money in history.

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8888888

These guys are targeting CHINESE BUYERS . Christy and Crew should just tell the truth that she and her realturd friends are going to sell this whole province to the CHINESE.

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Combat roach

Now we should expect fucks to start taking over downtown?

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TisSomethingNewSoOldAssumptionsDontWork

Oak and 16th atm.

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LS in Arbutus

ANZ Banking Group and Westpac Banking Corp have discovered they have each approved “hundreds” of home loans backed by fraudulent Chinese income documents, which were allegedly manufactured with the help of dodgy mortgage brokers.

One of the harbingers of the US bubble was fraud. Lots of fraud……

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Best place on meth

“ANZ Banking Group and Westpac Banking Corp have discovered they have each approved “hundreds” of home loans backed by fraudulent Chinese income documents, which were allegedly manufactured with the help of dodgy mortgage brokers.”

It’s so unlike the chinamen to commit fraud on a massive scale.

They’re usually quite honest and trustworthy.

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8888888

Now we have to subsidise rentals because of the high cost of housing .It never ends .Why can’t we put a surcharge on foreign buyers to subsidise rentals ,I’m sure they’ll gladly pay it just to live here.http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/were-in-a-crisis-vancouver-struggles-to-improve-rental-vacancy-rate

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Shut It Down Already

“Locusts”, “chinamen”…

Pope, when is this racist simpleton going to get his IP ban?

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Combat roach

Be quiet, nobody buys that shit anymore. The “racist” card is total crap.

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Shut It Down Already

Using racial slurs is no longer racist? Uh huh….

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

I thought I told you to fuck off?

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Shut It Down Already

I voted you up out of pity.

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8888888

This must be the reason Christy and Crew are selling the province to the highest bidder ,it looks like she’ll have to give the natural gas away to make her dream come true. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3586117/Get-5-cent-natural-gas-right-Canada.html

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

Fuck off.

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Royce McCutcheon

Vancouver: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
https://www.alumni.ubc.ca/2016/events/vancouver-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/

This event brought to you by the university with questionable ties to the real estate development sector (http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/03/18/Tsur-Somerville-Observer-Or-Player/) and sponsored by a mortgage broker.

Riiiiight.

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123

$31.1-million Point Grey mansion owned by ‘student’

NDP housing critic David Eby said the fact that a student was able to buy one of the most expensive homes in the city contradicts the government’s messaging that “everything is under control in the Vancouver real estate market.”

http://www.theprovince.com/business/real-estate/million+point+grey+mansion+owned+student/11912936/story.html

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8888888

I hope he’s claiming all his benefit’s such as subsidised bus pass ,msp premium reduction, leisure pass, homeowner grant etc… etc. If he isn’t I’m sure Christy and Crew will help him fill in the forms.Keep on working your asses off boy’s and girl’s ,we gotta make sure everything ‘s tip top for the overseas buyers.BPOE

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Bestplaceonearth

Are you sure you know what you’re talking about? Home owner grant????? I hope you know how to search, how much property tax is being collected on this property, good $$ source for general revenue, just on one guy.

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Runawayscreaming

I can understand why students are are buying houses on Belmont Avenue. It’s conveniently close to UBC. Living on Belmont Avenue is better than taking the bus to school from from Burnaby (the B-Line bus to UBC is SO overcrowded it’s the world champion of pass-ups). I am a little concerned about that $10 million CIBC mortgage, however. The house-buying student must have obtained that mortgage from the CIBC branch on the UBC campus, which is my branch. $10 million seems a bit much for someone in school but who am I to say. It’s Vancouver after all. Best place on earth.

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CanNeverThinkOfAGoodName

But does this student have the grades for UBC? Maybe he goes to Capilano or Langara or one of the others, even though he has a house near UBC.

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Bestplaceonearth

Why are you concerned? 31 mil, 2/3 equity, 1/3 mortgage, the bank don’t care much.

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Best place on meth

That’s some big money for a student, maybe UBC should be charging these foreign students $888,000 per semester.

Then poor local kids could just pay a few hundred.

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TisSomethingNewSoOldAssumptionsDontWork

Would such a student even bother going to class? More likely would pay someone to write his/her papers and do his exams.

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Yunak

He already “has” degree if not Ph.D. Status “student” is for tax, benefits and social assistance purposes

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patriotz

As any student can tell you, being one does not entitle you to any social benefits, nor any tax credits beyond those on the T2202A.

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paulb

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http://www.paulboenisch.com

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history

i stopped reading at ‘so called’

is there a phrase amongst the conceited media that captures our times than this?

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Best place on meth

She says what everyone thinks about those people.

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Yunak

Right, I just don’t understand why that general characteristic even gets attention. Rudeness is “acquired genetics” same as shortsightedness (myopia) or any other endemic genetic variation.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Short-sightedness/Pages/Causes.aspx

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space889

Maybe stupidity is also an “acquired genetics” given how you, BPOM, & rest of the team are exemplary specimens of all these characteristics: rudeness, short sightedness, stupidity, thin skin, etc, etc, etc….

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

I do believe Space Turd is an expert on stupidity.

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space889

if you actually read the article, it is pretty much much ado about nothing. People get pissed off at same thing and decided to walk off rather than getting into a shouting matching / heated loud argument. Seems like those snobby British just can’t stand that the sick man of Asia don’t gravel at their feet and follow their every demand like a good dog.

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Best place on meth

I think the Queen was being extremely patient with these grunting barbarians until one of them pissed on her corgi.

That’s when she lost her shit.

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sox

Barbarous not but it will take another 3 generations to civility..
http://vancouvercondo.info/2016/05/bc-announces-new-real-estate-rules.html

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squeak

Discretionary income for average millennial couple who purchased property at an average cost in 2016.
Edmonton: $47,356
Calgary: $41,933
Ottawa: $34,502
Halifax: $33,887
Kitchener-Waterloo: $29,113
Montreal: $26,915
Winnipeg: $25,930
Victoria: $12,200
Toronto: $3,37
Vancouver: negative-$2,745 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(from Financial Post)

Cannot get any clearer than this. Perfect 20/20.

What level headed young person would take $47,356 + $2,745 out of their pocket on December 31st and put it on fire, every year ( in 10 years that is 0.5 million dollars if not invested,if invested..wow) so they can take a peek at the mountains (when it is not cloudy/raining) and speed up the aging process on the beach and enjoy the gridlock fumes every day at 0700 and 16.30. Ooh wait a minnitt, is it not gridlock from 6 am till 10pm?

Is there something I am not getting?

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elvince

So, basically, move to Edmonotone? Negative discretionnary income isn’t really a problem for millenials. Nobody in that generation really needs to eat. Or they can dumpster dive. On thing that really hurst from the report is this: ” in 2015, a typical Vancouver millennial household of two earned $72,291″. That’s so little! It means the average millenial makes about 30k$. That’s 15$/hour. Barely more than minimum wage. I don’t think I even know of someone who makes 15$/hour. Wtf? You see those mainlanders with suitcases of money, and you can’t find a way to sell them a lambo or cook them a dog or something? I understand how people who live in rural areas where everyone is poor stay poor. But if you’re surrounded by people who are both rich enough and dumb enough to pay Vancouver RE prices and… Read more »

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squeak

shoo shoo

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Shut It Down Already

“Is there something I am not getting?”

Yes. People with average incomes aren’t buying average houses in Vancouver. Nobody is spending over 100% of their gross income on housing. It’s merely a ratio of two numbers – an illustration, if you will.

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funky monkey

yes people are! Or very close to all there income. Ever heard of rental income ? That no one claims. People are living off the rent of there mouldy basements.

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patriotz

Owners who need to rent out their basements to get by almost always have negative rental income or close to it.

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

How much does a moldy basement rent for in fantasy land?

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bullwhip29

For millennials in Vancouver, the living ain’t easy
http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/for-millennials-in-vancouver-the-living-aint-easy

“…according to a new report by Vancity, a typical millennial couple — those between the ages of 25 and 34 — buying a home at an average price in Vancouver will have no discretionary income and will rack up debt of $2,745 per year after paying for essential expenses including taxes, health care, food, utilities, transit costs, clothing and housing”

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Best place on meth

No mention of what the penalties are for breaking these rules.

I assume wrist slaps all around accompanied by loud chuckles.

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Madashell

Shere window dressing by the government, no teeth behind the rules.

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bullwhip29

“There’s obviously ways to verify citizenship,” Mr. de Jong said, “so I’m relatively comfortable that the mechanism exists there to cross-reference. And there’s a pretty strong and robust audit function in place even now around the property transfer tax.”

>>>this isn’t the issue dip$hit…what we all want to know is what the gov’t will DO after it has “studied” the data and figured out what everyone else already knows. somehow i seriously doubt we get any clarity on the matter prior to the election and once it is over, the whole file gets mothballed forever. any wonder why there are suddenly bidding wars in gibsons, pender harbour, powell river, sqaumish, nanaimo etc….i think not.

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patriotz

“what we all want to know is what the gov’t will DO after it has “studied” the data”

Christy has already told us. Nothing. “By moving foreign owners out of the market, housing prices will drop.” Can’t have that can we?

But my own feeling is that the government already has a pretty good estimate of foreign ownership through Home Owners Grant and other sources, and that it’s lower than a lot of people think. This new change will allow the government to release “hard” data just ahead of the next election to show everyone how diligent it’s been.

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patriotz

The new requirements, aimed at answering whether foreign ownership is driving up housing prices

Of course identifying foreign buyers will not tell you whether they are driving up prices. The only way to do that is to ban foreign ownership, or make it financially infeasible through taxation, and see if prices go down. But Christy has said expressly that she will not do this.

So presumably the best way to continue shadow flipping is to avoid being a licensed realtor

The article confuses, as many do, licensed real estate agents with realtors, who are agents who belong to a member of REBGV or similar boards.

Anyway, I recall that the original G&M article which caused such a fuss made the point that the flipper was not a licensed RE agent.

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Newcomer (N)

You can tell a lot from trends in foreign ownership rates. Depending on whether 5% or 25% or 50% of Vancouver properties are being purchased by foreigners, you can make a pretty good guess as to whether or not it’s driving up prices. My guess is that it is around 10 or 15% and has only a moderate impact.

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Best place on meth

Even the percentage of sales doesn’t tell us much about how much foreign money influences the market, percentage of dollar volume is more revealing.

Every $3 million house on the west side sold to a money-launderer can buy 2 houses in east Van or 3 in Coquitlam.

This is where you really see the impact on the entire lower mainland market.

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Shut It Down Already

Yes, because locals are forced to buy overpriced real estate at gunpoint by the nasty nasty foreigners!

They’re greedy speculators, and like all greedy speculators most of them are going to get taken to the cleaners. And it’ll be nobody’s fault but their own.

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Best place on meth

Fetch, Asshole!

Good boy!

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Shut It Down Already

Maybe one day you’ll come up with a counter-argument that doesn’t resort to pathetic insults. But to do that you’d have to have a defensible position, of course.

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ChinaOne Swallows Dicks

Eat it turd boy

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