In Vancouver your basement suite can be a mansion

Someone at zero hedge saw the unoccupied units stats for Vancouver and decided to refer to them all as ‘mansions’:

There Are 66,719 Empty Mansions In Vancouver

Yan said most of these were concentrated in three areas: Coal Harbour, Marine Gateway and Joyce-Collingwood. Surrey came in second at 11,195, Burnaby at 5,829 and Richmond at 4,021. The focus has clearly been on the most expensive neighborhoods: the number of unoccupied units increased 25% in Richmond between the 2011 and 2016 census and by 28 per cent in Burnaby.
To take advantage of this multi-million mansion ghost town, in November 2016 the Vancouver city council voted to approve a tax on empty homes, the first in Canada. Based on self-reporting owners, the tax is a one-per-cent charge on homes that are not principal residences or are not rented out for at least six months of the year. The goal was to improve Vancouver’s tight rental vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent by encouraging owners of thousands of empty units to offer them up for renting.

Read the full article here.

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Abdul Lahazi

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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.

3 people need to live in an 8,000 square foot house?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wawanesa-insurance-mission-dream-home-disaster-go-public-1.3969428

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Abdul Lahazi

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Everything is real estate: Buy a BC Ferries vessel for less than a Vancouver condo.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-ferries-queen-of-burnaby-up-for-auction-400k-1.3979442

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bullwhip29

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watch them sell it to washington marine group for $400k (as they were they only bid) then buy it back from them after it has been spruced up a bit. hey, maybe they can turn this into a homeless or refugee sheltor…out of sight, out of mind, a win-win for all!

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Banned Oracle

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Will be sold to insider.

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Best place on meth

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A 52-year-old BC Ferries vessel — The Queen of Burnaby — is up for auction and will be replaced by a newer craft that runs on liquid natural gas.

Krusty finally found some use for that LNG she’s been trying to peddle.

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bullwhip29

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OSC serves Home Capital Group with enforcement notice over disclosure of problems with applications
http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/osc-serves-home-capital-group-with-enforcement-notice-over-disclosure-of-problems-with-applications

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fomostyle

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Every player in this story —-> GREED

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bullwhip29

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Insurance repair disaster causes ‘mega destruction’ of dream home
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wawanesa-insurance-mission-dream-home-disaster-go-public-1.3969428

>>> the whole system is rotten to the core…

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Abdul Lahazi

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Oh, the joys of home ownership !

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Best place on meth

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Mansions or not, 66K empty homes is a travesty.

The owners of these empty houses should be taxed so high that they will have no choice but to sell.

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Just me

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Fat chance of that. Between Robertson and Christy Clark, we will like put in place more ‘cosmetic’ adjustments. After all we have to worry about maintaining the flow of “investors” to our shores, right? Our economy is importing millionaire migrants.

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Combat roach

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“Our economy is importing millionaire migrants.”

More precisely…

Our economy is importing useless, adverse parasites.

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Shut It Down Already

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It’s possible she will. If these properties really are empty and really are owned by foreigners then they’re not potential voters.

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Just me

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Her main constituents are developers and real estate investors who benefit from continued high prices.
So, in the end she will be happy for the show to go on as usual.

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Shut It Down Already

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Those people are far from being a majority.

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Just me

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Perhaps not a majority in numbers, but a majority in money. That counts a lot when i comes to crafting policy.

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Shut It Down Already

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That’s a failing strategy come Election Day.

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Newcomer

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The election is generally won or lost long before election day.

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Shut It Down Already

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Like Harper and Clinton?

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Newcomer

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Best place on meth

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These people are her donors.

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patriotz

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Homeowners are.

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Shut It Down Already

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Right – and they’re not developers or investors.

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history

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homeowners or heloc debt pig?
the latter counting on Prov regs for their next liquidity injection…’cause Canada is cold in winter, and Cabo and thong awaits. Fedheads already in Cabo from swilling the commons in to goo bonds and paying themselves enormous salaries.

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patriotz

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“they’re not potential voters”

Christy never cared about foreign owners themselves, rather the local RE industry which pays her and and her party, and the local homeowners who have received a promise from her to keep house prices from falling.

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Shut It Down Already

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Her promise isn’t worth much as she lacks the tools to manipulate prices to the extent that she’d need.

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Newcomer

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She gets a lot of mileage out of what she’s got.

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Bear Vancouverite

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Her tools to manipulate prices have been working pretty good so far: * property tax deferment without a means test (eg rich homeowners over 55 or rich owners with children) * TPP exemptions for First Time Home Buyers * The new $37.5k First Time Buyer’s plan * Rejection of NDP bill to increase tax on those who don’t pay T4 or have a history of paying T4 taxes locally. * lax regulation * lax enforcement of existing rules * not collecting and sharing data about foreign money in the market (aka stonewalling attempts to get more data about the industry) * not closing loopholes in various aspects of the industry (leading to double ending, shadow flipping, etc). Federally or otherwise outside of BC control, the following help manipulate prices nicely too: * Capital Gains exemption for primary residence, even if… Read more »

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Newcomer

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If I were her, I’d try to engineer a correction after the election and then start delivering pallets of cash to FTBs before the next election.

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Shut It Down Already

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The underlying forces – the cult of real estate in Canada – can’t easily be manipulated. If that tide turns it won’t be easy to keep things propped up. You can add also the cash incentives you want but if people think that RE is a bad investment they’ll stay on the sidelines for what could be years.

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Newcomer

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Agreed. It’s stupidly robust though, and not just in Canada.

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bullwhip29

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well, they would also have the option of “renting” to a friend of the family whose job it would be to just make the property appear lived in. Money would change hands once, then again and only a little bit of income tax would be paid (if any once illegal writeoffs are thrown into the mix)

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Just me

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Interesting article relating China money outflows to long-term bond yields in the US.

“Treasury Sell-Off Is a China Syndrome”
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-02-13/trump-may-be-unnerving-but-it-s-china-moving-treasuries

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bestplaceonearth

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the government should confiscate these empty homes, and hand them over no -charge to the entitlement elites.

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patriotz

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The problem is that they are already owned by the entitlement elites.

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bullwhip29

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they should but more likely they’d sell them back to a developer for 0.10 on the dollar

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Van real estate buff

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#VanRE Daily Review: https://youtu.be/5YpdxfolFu0

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Abdul Lahazi

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Competitive condo market in January: Realtor
http://www.cknw.com/2017/02/13/competitive-condo-market-in-january-realtor/
“Anything sub about $700,000 roughly. January condos in the Vancouver west side, about 25% of them went into multiple offers, still down from about the 38% in 2016.”
He says multiple offers means prices are going up.

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Just me

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Christy must be sitting happy right now.
People are buying condis with my tax dollars.

So much for the NDP being tax-and-spend. The BC Libs beat them to the chase.
In fact, I would much rather my tax dollars go to social services and schools than people who can’t save even 37k.

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Best place on meth

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16 years of welfare for homeowners while essential services become third world and renters can do nothing but stare at all the empty homes they can’t live in.

At this point I just want to put my tax dollars towards Christy’s incarceration and/or execution.

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Hyper-mega-Bull

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US software companies satellite offices are hiring high-skilled foreign workers like crazy! rent’s going up!

** Do you want to shape the future of the Cloud?
AWS Commerce Platform will be in Argentina to interview folks for Vancouver-based positions on February 2017. Please apply if you’re interested in attending! **

https://ca-amazon.icims.com/jobs/465064/software-engineer/

this picture is a thousand words:

https://shawglobalnews.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/microsoft1.jpg?quality=70&strip=all&w=720&h=480&crop=1

“The global implications are dire,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson of the unrest in the United States. “But it may result in more workers coming to Vancouver to be part of the boom here in a city that welcomes immigrants with open arms.”

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ostritch

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So no more H1Bs in the Silicon Valley? Now they’re coming here? Holy Sh*t. That’ll be the death knell for locals.

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ostritch

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What an ignoramus Gregor is. The job comes here but so does the worker and the middleman who takes a slice lives and pays taxes elsewhere. Meanwhile wages for tech jobs declines otherwise they’d hire locals like they guys who post here. Hang on…

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ostritch

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Whatever happened to HAM-denying Ben Rabbidous? Does he still have a job as a housing expert? Makes you laugh at the idea of experts.

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Just me

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Rabidoux may have been wrong about HAM. But he is a serious and insightful researcher.
I should remind you that, until 24 months ago, many people laughed at the idea that HAM was the key problem. Hell, some still do it today, although I think they are a small minority.

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patriotz

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“HAM” is not the key problem, rather a symptom of the key problem, which is government policies that encourage speculative ownership and inflate prices.

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Shut It Down Already

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Indeed, we have stats that support the idea that locals gorging themselves on credit are responsible. This doesn’t fit the agenda of some posters, however.

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Banned Oracle

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Agenda? Spewed from the horses mouth. LMAO

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Just me

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Please provide the aforementioned stats.

Your stats are a bit like Christy Clark’s promises: they never materialize.

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Shut It Down Already

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Mortgage debt, consumer debt (absolute and as a fraction of GDP), and rrsp/tfsa contributions for starters. Then add surveys about people being in dire straits if they missed a single pay check (even though such surveys aren’t completely reliable).

The numbers are out there. I’m not going to waste my time digging out links you’ll only ignore, though. You’re blind to the facts, my friend.

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The Man

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True. As many have pointed out, homes prices have doubled to tripled in all Canadian cities in the last 15 years. Most with no or little Asian populations, no land constrictions, and some with little population growth.

http://www.torontocondobubble.com/p/canadas-housing-bubble.html

Vancouver is not alone in this.

In the last few years. 70-80% of Metro sales have been for home less that $1mil. And with the surge in buying in the less than $750k range that’s been happening in the last few weeks due to the new government teaser loans, it’s apparent Christy also knows who’s behind this bubble.

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Newcomer

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We are witnessing one of the most remarkable cases of mass hysteria since War of the Worlds.

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Just me

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The fact that prices have grown in multiple locations does not mean that prices have grown for the same reasons.

This is especially true if you do the math and look at absolute vs proportional gains. In a place in which houses cost 100k, a simple 50k increase is a 50% jump.
Now, is it OK to compare that to a place in which 50% equals 500K?

A few years back I was like you, convinced it was all credit and local buyers. Experience and observation have taught me how wrong I was for a long time.

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Newcomer

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Yes, it is. Real estate is always analyzed in relative terms. If you start looking at absolute numbers, you will e totally lost.

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Shut It Down Already

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Did you fail math?

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Newcomer

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Actually, yes, once in grade 10. Too much partying. I was OK after that though.

Anyway, what was your point? Did you want to argue that different real estate markets should be compared using absolute figures? I’d love to hear why you think that would make sense.

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Best place on meth

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A city doesn’t need to have any Asian population whatsoever and still be affected by HAM.

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Shut It Down Already

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Dumbest theory yet? Just concede that Canadians have over-extended themselves already. All the available stats support this.

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Best place on meth

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It’s not a theory.

Chinese are buying up farmland all over the country.

They can and will buy anything, and everything, anywhere urban or rural, this country has no restrictions on foreigners buying real estate of any kind.

There is nothing to concede on my side, I’ve never argued against locals overextending themselves.

You on the other hand have a real problem conceding the effects of HAM.

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Shut It Down Already

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Not at all – we have stats, remember? I’m not a conspiracy theorist who denies anything the government says because it was the government who said it.

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Best place on meth

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I understand your game, you’re well aware that stats are plentiful on local buyers but deliberately not collected on foreigners, so you can make your claim and pretend HAM doesn’t exist.

Fortunately, after much shaming the BC Libs finally started collecting foreign buyer data (and by foreign I mean locusts) last June and it showed a very significant portion of sales were to those very same locusts.

You clearly have an agenda.

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Bear Vancouverite

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Foreign money is a problem, how large a problem don’t have to agree on. But you can’t say that something that is part of the problem is merely a symptom. Maybe you ought to say the foreign money as a problem exists because of policies encouraging speculative ownership, but that doesn’t negate that fact that we can create tax policy to punish foreign money as much or more than local speculators to help reign in all problems.

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patriotz

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There is no prospect of the provincial government identifying “foreign money” at all without Federal participation, and even then I doubt it would lead to a workable policy.

This is why I have said that any anti-speculation policies must apply all owners, as does the NDP’s proposed penalty for those not paying income tax.

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ostritch

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I Totally disagree with your description of him as insightful. Anyone looking to his research would have seriously misled by the one factor many on his site tried to present to him. Now it’s too late for Ontarians who may have followed his flawed research.

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southseacompany

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Ben Rabidoux is still active. In fact, he was in the news last month. Fortress sued him for defamation, and lost.

“How a real estate developer’s efforts to silence a critic failed”, Maclean’s
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/how-a-real-estate-developers-efforts-to-silence-a-critic-failed/

“Fortress’s defamation suit against an independent analyst over his tweets tested a new Ontario law protecting free expression in the public interest”

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ostritch

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Wow. That is quite the story and a scare for Ben Rabbidoux. He’s very lucky that law came into effect when it did. Sounds like he didn’t count on it with his first tweets. No doubt he’d like to take on the dirt that infests this industry but it is powerful and connected to government. I wouldn’t advise a private analyst to do this unless they have finaicial backing to pay for lawyers. This used to be the domain of journalism but that’s gone now.

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southseacompany

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“Toronto drives Canadian home prices up in January: Teranet”, BNN

http://www.bnn.ca/toronto-drives-canadian-home-prices-up-in-january-teranet-1.671362

“Canadian home prices rose in January as values in the hot Toronto market climbed even further, while Vancouver prices picked up after three months of declines, the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed on Tuesday.”

“Prices in Vancouver rose 0.3 per cent on the month, suggesting the once-hot market could be perking back up. ”

BTW, Teranet only tracks single family homes.

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patriotz

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The indices are estimated on a monthly basis by tracking the sale prices of condominiums, row/town houses and single family homes within these six metropolitan areas.

http://www.housepriceindex.ca/documents/MethodologyEN.pdf

Also keep in mind that Teranet uses price information from closings and takes a 3 months average, which means the January index can reflect sales going back well into last fall.

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bullwhip29

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1 in 6 Canadians aged 55 or older hasn’t started retirement saving yet, RBC survey finds
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/royal-bank-retirement-1.3981758

>>> I wonder where the average Cdn is dumping most of their cash?

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history

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so 5/6 have money that the sniveller Govt, through the corrupt Banks, plan to confiscate, or make redundant from hyperinflation.

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bullwhip29

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Why spend a million on a home in the city, when you can buy a whole town?
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/why-spend-a-million-on-a-home-in-the-city-when-you-can-buy-a-whole-town/

“Town buy-and-sell has become a niche market in Canada, and is certainly one of the stranger trends in a country that has gone real estate crazy. ”

>>> I buy three, my husband is gonna buy three…

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bullwhip29

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1 hour from Vancouver to Seattle? Washington state budgets $1M for high-speed rail study
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/1-hour-from-vancouver-to-seattle-washington-state-budgets-1m-for-high-speed-rail-study-1.3981747

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patriotz

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W32klYkTxCQ

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Best place on meth

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http://www.vancouversun.com/China+planning+high+speed+rail+line+Canada/9868927/story.html

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bullwhip29

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REPOST:

SCMP: Vancouver’s foreign buyer tax and the work-permit loophole ‘you could drive Highway 99 through’
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2069712/vancouvers-foreign-buyer-tax-and-work-permit

“A work permit “does not require you to work. It is permission to work, if you so choose,”

“Numerous circumstances existed in which people could obtain a work permit without actually working. If you’re a student, say at UBC, your spouse can get an open work permit. It’s as common as pie,”

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Just me

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This is deliberate from Christy Clark and Mike deJong. They know they are killing the 15% tax, and that is exactly what they want to do.

Many people will not even note. This is how bad voters are in BC.

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Newcomer

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Killing the 15% tax without letting the residents of BC know will not have much impact. The real impact of the 15% tax is psychological.

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Just me

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No, it’s not.
You can check that the government raised a significant amount of money out of it. That is cash, not psychology.

Give stats in support of your statements. We should not talk abotu what we don’t know, right?

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Newcomer

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As you are aware, the changes in sales happened before the tax. I am not going to repost the large amount of data backing that up.

The money raised from the tax is not germane to our discussion. Government revenue is not at issue. We are talking about the impact on prices.

As to talking about things we do not know, I would disagree. How can we learn if we do not talk about things that we do not know? What I have suggested in the past is that we should not confuse gut feelings with established facts.

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bullwhip29

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@ Newcomer

I repeat for the umpteenth time that well connected players in the industry were aware the tax was coming weeks, maybe months in advance. Watch what happens in the coming weeks. Stuff is already starting to get snapped up again. Once the sheeple out there realize what has happened many listings will be cancelled. Kudos to those that recently bought at a discount and are about to get a nice 15% cash back bonus for doing so…

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Just me

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10 years ago i would have said that Bullwhip29 is a conspiracy theorist. However, after seeing the way the BC Libs conduct themselves, I suspect there might be some truth in what he says.

The sudden pick up after Clark’s announcement on Chinese new year is more than suspicious.

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Shut It Down Already

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You mean sales picked up after New Years like they do every single year? Shocking.

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Just me

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Sales picked up after Christy Clark (draped in Dragon Red clothing) announced at the Chinese New Year that the foreign buyers tax would be weakened significantly.

Of course, both the time and location of her announcement were random.

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Banned Oracle

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Another BC Lib real estate shill

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Newcomer

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It just does not make sense that enough people knew about it in advance. Give me a hard number. How many people do you imagine were told in advance and did not buy what they would have otherwise bought as a result?

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bullwhip29

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@ Newcomer
rennie and other developers, closely connected agents etc were aware ahead of time. surely they advised their friends, family and top shelf clients to sit tight until further notice (perhaps without saying anything specific regarding the tax). nevertheless a stall or change of direction at the leading edge will most certainly affect the overall market. once a few big ticket deals go through in the coming weeks and the general public gets fully tuned in re FBT, this thin, low volume market will scoot ahead with little resistance. meaningful supply will not return until the old highs are revisited

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Newcomer

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I don’t buy it. Buy a house is not like buying a fish. You do not know how many people are in the market at the same time as you. Even if hundred of foreign buyers and in-the-know people pulled back, the effect would only have been to reduce multiple bids. It does not make sense that it would stall the market.

If you see it otherwise, please describe it in more detail (how many people did what, and what the consequence was) because I just cannot imagine what the scenario would be.

(Please start a new thread though, as the boxes on this one are getting small.)

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Just me

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Funny how you ask for numbers from others, while not providing any yourself.

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Bear Vancouverite

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Guys, I don’t buy it that Christy Clark is giving inside info to her friends so they can buy real estate. This is totally stretching and not even worth discussing in the face of all the provable problems she has created. This is exactly the type of argument that totally discredits anyone who is pushing it.

Those who care about housing costs should vote out Christy Clark not on some fantasy theories, but based on the fact that she has been doing very visible and provable things to make housing more expensive in service of her donors.

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Bear Vancouverite

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I think if we extrapolate from several different published stats we can hypothesize quite safely that foreign money has a significant impact on the upper end of prices (eg SFH). Stats show that foreign money buys more expensive properties on average than locals (sorry, couldn’t find the text to cite this). If the overall average recorded foreign buyer was 10% of all purchases, I wonder if it goes as high as 20 or 30% or more for SFH and especially Vancouver West SFH. This would correlate nicely with the foreign buyer tax causing a stronger collapse in sales numbers for SFH and properties above $1.5M. Also, you can’t kill the tax without letting residents know: realtors, news outlets, and the opposition will make great waves about this, so killing the tax silently will have the same impact as killing it… Read more »

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Just me

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“KPMG warns of Chinese property defaults”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/financial-services/kpmg-warns-of-chinese-property-defaults/news-story/469b110110df2db41f5b6e5a6f064e10?nk=f9cdfc157903f6ffa4548d496873cdfc-1487096085

“B.C. Lender Sounds Alarm On China’s Ban On Foreign Homebuying”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/02/14/china-foreign-homebuyers-ban_n_14729502.html

“China Implements Stricter Regulations on Nationals’ Foreign Accounts”
http://en.yibada.com/articles/194025/20170214/china-implements-stricter-regulations-nationals-foreign-accounts.htm

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Hyper-mega-Bull

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BOOM!

Richmond, BC, $3,288,000

Land Size: 8868 sqft

Built in: 1971

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/17742258/7780-TWEEDSMUIR-AVENUE-Richmond-British-Columbia-V7A1L4

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Funkeymonkey

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288,000 is all I will pay for that. Still would need 250k in renovations.

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No Money Down

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Let me know when it sells…

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bullwhip29

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if someone has got some money to launder, you never know 😉

only this time no more new coast-to-new coast shenanigans but rather new to coast to pre-arranged clients of newly formed spin off companies, metro edge and nu stream.

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Abdul Lahazi

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“located in the most desirable Shangri-La Broadmoor area.” Shangri-La? Is that for real?

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southseacompany

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“Fed Chair Yellen: ‘Unwise’ to wait too long to hike interest rates”, CNBC

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/fed-chair-janet-yellen-unwise-to-wait-too-long-to-hike-interest-rates.html

“Waiting too long to raise interest rates would be “unwise” as economic growth continues and inflation rises, Fed Chair Janet Yellen told Congress on Tuesday.”

“Repeating caution that she and other central bank officials have issued in recent months, Yellen said that even though the Fed expects to hike gradually and to keep policy accommodative, getting rates back to normal levels is important and hikes will be considered ahead.”

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Abdul Lahazi

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They have already waited too long to raise rates; at least 5 years too long.

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Bear Vancouverite

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Whether you believe in foreign money or not, whether you trust Christy Clark or not, you should do more than post on this blog if you want to influence the outcome of Vancouver housing . 1) Write to your local MLA and let them know you don’t support foreign money in our housing. Make sure any “exemptions” are tied to local T4 reporting and that the exemptions are a multiple of those reported earnings (eg 6x 2016 T4 reported earnings is exempt from the foreign buyer tax). Even if you don’t believe foreign buyers have anything to do with prices, a large majority of the city does (including sellers, realtors, and other buyers), and appearing to be strict on foreign money will have an impact. 2) Tell your MLA that these are issues affecting your vote. 3) Encourage friends, colleagues,… Read more »

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The Man

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Your opening statement “Whether you believe in foreign money or not” is contradicted by your first point.

If one doesn’t believe it’s foreign money, then it’s absurd to ask them to “write to your local MLA and let them know you don’t support foreign money in our housing.”

I have no interest in perpetuating this myth that the local RE industry has been using to scare people into buying since Cam Good told us to ‘get our real estate grove on’

Until people realize that they are not stuck in traffic – they are traffic – this bubble won’t burst.

Nothing an MLA can do anyway, as this is not a local or BC issue. It’s the Feds and, most importantly, G7 central bankers who have the real control over this national (and worldwide) asset bubble.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/upshot/welcome-to-the-everything-boom-or-maybe-the-everything-bubble.html?_r=0

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Newcomer

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“they are traffic”

Well put!

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Just me

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What you just wrote makes no sense, even if you (mistakenly) believe that foreign money is not a factor.

One key reason people buy is that the Provincial government has stacked the deck in favor of buying. What Bear Vancouverite just told you is that you should let your Provincial government know that you are NOT ok with perpetuating the “welfare for homeowners”.

Otherwise, you might just as well vote for Christy Clark and have another 4 years of :
– property tax credits for the rich
– subsidized entry loans
– lax enforcement of transfer taxes
– condoning of anonymity in property titles (numbered companies and hidden beneficiaries)
– tax credits for first time buyers of new builds

These are Christy Clark brilliant achievements in the past 4 years. Are you OK with them?

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Combat roach

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Speaking of brilliant achievements, you forgot to mention “locusts and scumbags colonization of BC due to generous availability of outstanding money laundering and parking services”

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The Man

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No. I’m not okay with them. But, a lot of these things have been around for decades before the bubble appeared. CMHC has been subsidizing entry loans since ’46. BC homeowner grants have been around since ’57. I doubt they were the significant catalyst. Central bankers have FAR more power that Christy and her gang running a province of only 4.5 mil pop. The world’s money supply has doubled since the Dot.com Bubble burst – from $35 trillion USD to $70 trillion USD. That is unprecedented in work history. It’s not so much that home prices have risen in value – it’s that the value of money has fallen drastically. Foreign money is the result of this – not the cause. Just like speculation is the result, expectation of gains is the result, and young buyers over-extending themselves in debt… Read more »

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Just me

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All the things I listed are new, or newly abused (like titles becoming anonymous in larger proportions) over the past years.

You seem to believe that the Provincial government has nothing to do with price appreciation.

Like many before you, you are wrong. Monetary policy alone is not the reason for why a house in Vancouver starts at 2.5 millions.

You have absolutely no input on log term bond yields. You do have an input on local politicians. You would be wise yo use it, instead of complaining about local speculators.

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YVR

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You seem to believe that the Provincial government has nothing to do with price appreciation.

Immigration, CMHC and interest rates are all federal responsibilities. Sure the province has the power through taxation to deflate the bubble. That is what the 15% tax is doing right now. Be patient.

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Just me

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The Province has no intention (I repeat no intention) to induce lower prices in the foreseeable future. Christy Clark said so herself. And she confirmed her intention by hollowing out the 15% tax after less than 6 months from its introduction.

Why do you keep defending the indefensible behavior of the BC Libs? They just introduced a giveaway of 37k to new buyers with our tax money. Yet, you call them the party of fiscal responsibility. In what parallel universe are you living your life?

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Banned Oracle

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Are you still getting played by the BC lib real estate shill aka YVR with sidekick Newcomer. ?

I thought you smarter than that jus me.

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Newcomer

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But why just real estate? Shouldn’t the price of canned tuna have doubled too?

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Bear Vancouverite

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The BC government has the power to affect the bubble significantly.

A nice increase of real estate tax with a tax credit on reported T4 (as proposed by the NDP) would probably do the trick nicely. It can be selectively applied to different ranges of prices for greater effect.

They can even stimulate other consumption by lowering PST on certain things while increasing taxes on residential real estate.

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Bear Vancouverite

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My statement makes perfect sense:

1) like it or not, the myth exists and buyers, sellers, and realtors believe it.
2) It’s harder to fight the myth than to make that myth work for you.
3) Christy Clark and co already believe that Foreign investors are a good boogeyman. They are willing to punish that boogeyman and those who believe in the boogeyman will react accordingly.
4) It’s easier to take advantage of this myth than to address CMHC

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history

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https://househuntvictoria.ca/2017/02/14/valentines-market-update/#comments

panic buying in Victoria….

now, if you panic whatever it may entail, there’s gonna be mistakes… you’re not being rational

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Donald T

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http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2091_ind/t2091ind-16e.pdf

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Donald T

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Remember to file this new Form with CRA when filing 2016 tax return, (for sale of a Principle Home) Or you can ignore it, because CRA is only able to get the low hanging fruits. Like bus passes or that 3.25 from RBC savings.

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Oh NO

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This new provision will stop or at least slow yearly home flippers

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YLTNboomerang

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Ha:
“If you were not a resident of Canada for the entire time you owned the designated property, call 1-800-959-8281. Your period of non-residence may reduce or eliminate the availability of the principal residence exemption.”
What a joke, the locusts are not honest, this should read “If you were not a resident of Canada for the entire time you owned the designated property, call 1-800-959-8281. Your period of non-residence may increase the availability of the principal residence exemption or grant you citizenship”. We need to adopt the same tactic of lying to ensnare the scum.

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Best place on meth

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Our mandarin speaking operators are standing by now!

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paulb

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New
325
Price Change
41
Sold
126

TI:7980

http://www.clivestevepaul.com

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Newcomer

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I imagine that, out of consistency, HMB and BW will now start arguing that the market is heading downhill.

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ostritch

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Only 5,000 more listings until we get to what used to be a hot sellers market. 7,000 until we get to balanced.

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YLTNboomerang

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Ugh, this market is so messed up. I just contacted a property manager about renting a place for $6000/month long term. I was comfortable with legislated rent increases and was willing to sign a 1-10 year conventional lease as I want my kids to have stability and not have to change schools due to a landlord selling or getting cute with rent increases. In a normally functioning market I would be a landlords dream “hey, want 3/4 of a million guaranteed cash flow?”…no, only fixed term lease, maybe two years. I told them they can go fuck themselves and once fixed terms are legislate out they can call me back and maybe I’ll be willing to pay $5500. So damn annoying, I have a solid massively well paid job offer in the US but am pushing back because I want… Read more »

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Vanco

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Maybe you are expecting too much. I assume you are renting at west side given the amount you are willing to pay. Let’s assume your rental is worth 2.5m, which essentially is a little more than a tear down. So the landlord is getting 60k after tax and expenses for a return of 2.4% and you want to lock in for 10 years? A bit delusional, no?

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Just me

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You think a teardown is worth more than 6k a month? Are you on drugs?

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Ulsterman

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After what was looking like a fruitless search, i just secured a 3 year lease on a 4400sqft executive home a 5 minute walk from my work in N Burnaby. 7 bedroom, 4 bathrooms and the bottom of three floors is a self-contained, separate entrance one bed suite – above ground. I paid $3750 after some back and forth with the overseas Chinese owner. At first they didn’t want to include the suite as they had some furniture they would store there, but i told them i wouldn’t take it without the suite. I have two homestays and i’m renting the suite to my MIL (who i like and she’s great with the kids) so I’m paying $700/month to rent the house. I found that the more professional house owners and the agencies demanded ref & credit checks, application forms,… Read more »

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Just me

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It seems most people who are trying to rent full houses have to deal with the representatives of non-resident chinese owners nowadays.

But hey, foreign money us just a sideshow according to some.

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Burnaby

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Congrats. Sounds like a super deal. A little legwork really pays off. Why buy when you can rent in the same area for pennies! Hopefully that “must move out” option will be legislated away soon. There are so many rental houses available in Burnaby now due to all the speculators.

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ostritch

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What’s the point? He could go to Seattle, Portland or anywhere else on the West Coast and live in a similar city with real job opportunities. He could qualify for a green card and give his children a chance at living in a real economy rather than being stuck in a country whose only plan is to sell itself to foreigners. We can now clearly see Canada’s trajectory. If I had kids, I’d be out of here in a NY minute.

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Bear Vancouverite

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Not everyone can get out of town. I have friends who have elderly parents that need help and/or have disabilities or illnesses of some sort. If one can abandon parents in need then options abound (I know a few who did this).

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Newcomer

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I moved back here from the States when my son was in grade 4 because Vancouver is a better place to raise kids than NYC, and probably than most places in the States. There are a lot of things than Vancouver is not good for: earning money, arts, business, entertainment, etc. But for raising kids, it’s just about perfect.

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history

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no sheit.. whadyyaknow… Profile adjustment!!
.. raising kids, no less

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Newcomer

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What do you mean? (Only one kid, by the way.)

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ostritch

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Why use the extreme example of NY? If he’s in tech he can easily work on the west coast. Tons of small safe suburbs outside Seattle and Portland.

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Newcomer

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It’s not an example, it’s just my experience. Safety was never an issue where we were in NYC. In fact, by and large, almost all of NYC is safe enough. You know me, I’m a fan of Canadian values, and that was the real thing that I was after for our son.

It’s a complicated thing, you have to balance a lot of factors to make a decision.

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ostritch

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He didn’t mention parents.

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ostritch

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Get over yourself and your ego and get out of this town. Then change the way you let media stories and principles push you to want to be right so bad that you end up doing wrong for your family for a decade. Seriously! If you do t get it straight up here you won’t get it straight up anywhere. Let your wife make the financial decisions and you concentrate on your work. The US in this period equals real opportunity.

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Whistler or Bust?

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Be patient and keep looking. It took us a while but we found a beautiful place in Kerrisdale for lower than that. I asked for a 5 yr. lease to move my kids in and not worry about getting kicked out and they said no problem. No rent increases just straight 5 yr lease.

Vancouver Condo Info

In Vancouver your basement suite can be a mansion

Bubble? What Bubble?