Its the end of another week and that means 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:
– can’t afford to work in Vancouver?
So what are you seeing out there?
Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes in the comments below and have an excellent weekend!
[…] has approved regulations around short-term rentals and announced […]
China urged to stop using electroshock therapy to ‘convert’ gays…
“Central bankers vow to wean investors off of easy money”, Globe & Mail
“After pumping some $10-trillion into financial markets since the 2008 crisis – driving them to record highs – the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are now trying to wean investors off easy money without causing an upset.”
“According to the Greek Finance Ministry, property owners try to bypass the 3% commission to Airbnb and upcoming taxes by direct contact to customers via messenger or telephone. The payments are done cash at the arrival and not through the platform. In this way, property owners can bypass not only the commission but also registration of the rentals and future taxes. Just in case and even if one day, the Airbnb decides to hand over its Greek data to the tax authorities. For the time being it looks as the Greek goal to tax Airbnb properties has to be postponed.”
==
Is this the future?
The Unintended Consequence of Airbnb is the obliteration of the Govt and Skimmer Middleman? And doesnt that destroy the very purpose of large cities in the first place?
Worlds biggest housing bubble?
But in the minutes of the Riksbank’s latest rate meeting, Deputy Governor Cecilia Skingsley suggested that monetary policy, “under certain circumstances, can be used to combat the effects of major household debt.” She also said the housing market “must be carefully monitored,” given the latest developments.
The same kind of moronic comments that Poloz and Wilkins have been making in Canada. What about futures stability? Can’t these central bankers see that they are only making the problem worse?
Accommodative monetary policy is like quicksands: the more you move within it, the more it sucks you in.
I suspect these bankers are simply trying to avoid to deal with the nasty consequences of higher interest rates during their mandates. They care about their own careers more than they do for society at large.
Only 1.5 million dollars beautiful pics
And that’s with a $100,000 price drop.
“Some short-term rental hosts criticized the proposed rules at a public hearing last month, saying the changes will deprive them of much-needed income.
Councillors from the opposing Non-Partisan Association echoed those concerns on Tuesday, with Coun. George Affleck warning that homeowners who depend on the extra income will be forced to leave Vancouver or lead “very challenging lives.”
Challenging lives my ass, fucking crybabies don’t know what challenging is.
Go ahead and leave. Take Affleck and the NPA with you.
Yeah who feels sorry for these clowns? If you can’t afford your mortgage without operating an illegal airbnb hotel, what the hell are you doing owning property in Vancouver? The mania has obviously made everyone greedy and brainless. I hope these morons are left homeless. Maybe then they’ll learn a lesson about not borrowing too much money, and how asset bubbles work.
New
347
Price Change
78
Sold
153
TI:9584
The last time I saw a 300+ listing day in November, a unicorn ran through my yard in full football gear.
Long weekend. Two days into one number.
But if it keeps coming…
So far, nothing to affect affordability!
1) AirBnb legislation — legislation is laughable really
2) 2% tax – DEAD
3) FBT: closing loopholes – DEAD
4) Continuation of 1st time buyer loan. – will continue
plus Trudeaus scheme full steam ahead:
A) China Free trade agreement
B) More foreign students, 10 yr visa holders, and immigration
You guys see a pattern yet???
Flow through welfare for landlords,
Sacred untouchable policy
“4) Continuation of 1st time buyer loan. – will continue”
Source = department of redundancy department….. Credible.
I see the pattern. A guy with the patience and intelligence of a 2 year old keeps posting mostly crazy lies on a blog with a maximum of 12 readers in a sad and bizarre attempt to encourage someone to start a revolution.
He doesn’t want to start a revolution, he’d be the first one taken out in any serious uprising.
I’ll do it!
You could be complete one sided, or maybe you can include some of the risks: 1) Interest rates are now back to 2014 levels when 70% of Canadians said they couldn’t afford a 10% increase in payments from the 0.5% rates. 2) Interest rates are widely expected to rise twice more next year. 3) The new stress test will make all new buyers qualify at effectively 4.85% interest rate. 4) The Airbnb rules actually sound quite good to me, not watered down and a lot better than many feared it would be. 5) Empty Home tax will have some effect 6) CMHC just did a speach saying they are looking more closely at unregulated lenders and what risk that gives them. Immigration and foreign capital are still wildcards, but so far, all levels of government have been trying to tone… Read more »
These things are bearish for locals who earn locally and pay tax. For everyone else it’s business as usual.
Vancouver approves regulations around short-term rentals including Airbnb
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-approves-regulations-around-short-term-rentals-including-airbnb
new rules take effect April 1, 2018
owners can rent out part or all of their principal homes; no secondary homes, secondary suites and laneway homes
must pay $49 annual license and one-time $54 activation fee
transaction fee of up to three per cent will be levied by AirBnb and remitted to the city
also passed amendment allowing short term rentais in secondary suites IF vacancy rate hits 4%
Huge Loopholes!
If you rent out your condo to me for $1 per year. Its my primary residence. But I’m not there most of the time so I AirBnB it and pass the proceeds to my brother.
🙂
Face recognition technology?
Oracle – always desperately trying to convince everyone that either it won’t happen or there are huge loopoholes. Here’re are a few thoughts about your loophole: – If the city collect a 3% tax on all Airbnb transactions in their jurisdiction, that will create a nice fat fund to pay for enforcement. Fines from enforcement will further fund that task force, it will pay for itself, create jobs, and nicely reduce this type of speculation. – Your condo will have to have more than 1 bedroom to be rented out. – The registered license you get will mean you have to declare income tax on your Airbnb, which will be at your marginal rate. It’s easy for Aibnb like platforms to associate total yearly rental $ volume on a per license basis and send those to if required/asked to do… Read more »
Brilliant post. Hope you are correct. Enforcement will be key.
and seriously how hard would it be check name on title and cross reference with the so called landlord? not hard, but will they actually do it is another matter altogether
also the $1 rent scheme would be subject to scrutiny by the vacant property gestapo if anyone ever asked to see rental agreement. the fact is that the principal residence exemption will be the first thing that would be audited and tenant can’t be seen to be linked to owner in any way
Watch for a flood of former airbnb property to hit spring market
Uh huh.
Seattle approves tax on Airbnb, short-term rental operators
http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/seattle-approves-tax-on-airbnb-short-term-rental-operators
Defiant Hong Kong soccer fans boo China anthem at match
http://www.news1130.com/2017/11/09/defiant-hong-kong-soccer-fans-boo-china-anthem-at-match/
Everyone seems to hate China.
Of course soccers fans are otherwise renowned for their racial tolerance….
Exactly it is all about the race. Hong Kong soccer fans and Chinese being of two different and conflicting races are renowned regarding their racial issues between each other.
He already knew they’re the same race so he had to make it about soccer fans in order to continue his pathetic race baiting.
If only someone could explain to me some obvious reasons why we should love it.
The Richmond company reeling from headlines about suspected money laundering by high rollers from China at its flagship casino wants a judge to stop the B.C. NDP government from releasing more documents to the media unless it is consulted first.
http://thebreaker.news/news/gcg-foi-release/
Now we know who is running the province
Their casino licenses should be suspended immediately and managers arrested.
The story will soon be buried and forgotten by the BC sheep.
Looks like there is a lot more dirt that is about to be released which the casino just covered up.
sort of like the shipping containers issue in Vancouver, they have this in Des Moines Iowa:
http://www.news1130.com/2017/11/14/tiny-houses-are-trendy-unless-they-go-up-next-door/
But do they have screaming locusts too?
“Home sales down in Metro Vancouver, but up in B.C.”, Vancouver Sun
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/home-sales-down-in-metro-vancouver-but-up-in-b-c
“The British Columbia Real Estate Association says 8,677 homes were sold last month in B.C., an increase of 19.3 per cent from last year, despite a housing supply crunch.”
However, in Metro Vancouver, the association reports sales dropped nearly 35 per cent over the same time period. As sales fell, prices continued to rise in Metro Vancouver, with the average price of a home jumping more than 20 per cent to $1,074,834 from $891,705 year over year.”
Canada’s Housing Agency Targets Shadow Lenders as Debt Ratios Rise.
A little over 6 WEEKS left until Jan 2018!!!
BC legislature soon going to recess for the holidays. NO talk of any housing action. Do you really think these clowns will announce anything in Feb Budget? Lmao
They lied to you. Don’t get suckered the 2nd time around during next election.
It’s a bigger lie than the fudge-it-budget.
Of course there will be housing announcements, but it will mostly be small things for political gains. The NDP won’t do anything significant. In fact, they are busy deleting and shredding everything David Eby said and wrote in the last few years.
Yup!
The MSM is writing the storyline as we speak right now. Basically that we are in this situation because of “clark” and the new NDP government can’t do anything about it.
Cant believe the sheep can’t see they are being played for fools by the NDP-Lib alliance.
“can’t” or “WONT”??? there is a difference
‘Can’t’
Fits the developers’ goals perfectly.
I’d say it’s pretty close to being the same thing in this case. There is simply too much money and power at stake, both of which have an interest in keeping the housing situation as it is. That’s all you need to know about why the NPD aren’t going to do anything substantial. The only thing that will change that equation is massive political pressure. I think the NDP view the current level of pressure as a minor irritant more than anything. Our housing market is like the ring in the Lord of the Rings. Horgan currently wears the ring. He knows it should be thrown in the volcano, but instead it possesses him. The BC Liberals are like Golem, trying to take it back. Neither of them are going to melt this stupid thing down. The rest of us… Read more »
“Our housing market is like the ring in the Lord of the Rings. Horgan currently wears the ring. He knows it should be thrown in the volcano, but instead it possesses him. The BC Liberals are like Golem, trying to take it back. Neither of them is going to melt this stupid thing down. The rest of us are stuck living in this FantasyLand where the local hobbits are either too stupid to see what caused us to get here, or too greedy to care.”
So true. But I am still really disappointed in David Eby: for a passing moment, I thought he was different. I had no trust in Horgan, but I thought that Eby had the character to make real change.
Horgan put him there for good reason… your AG can’t be very political. It guaranteed he would keep away from the housing file. Plus, being the head of Dork Court is the dream job for a lawyer.
Eby is a lawyer so it makes sense that he is the AG.
“The BC Liberals are like Golem”
The Lord of the Rings character is named Gollum. We could use a Golem actually.
The MSM is another failed institution. Look at the casino money laundering issue. How many people know that a Burnaby City Councillor got caught red handed with something like $100k in casino chips a couple years ago? That should have been front and centre for a long time. They buried it instead.
In 2015, as home prices skyrocketed in Vancouver, then B.C. premier Christy Clark and then trade minister Teresa Wat held intimate meetings with Hong Kong developers and donors who had billions invested in Vancouver property.
“Are you considering any policy changes in light of the recent property valuations and public concerns for affordable housing?” was one expected question.
The response prepared for Clark and Wat was: “Government would need to proceed very carefully before considering measures that would force down the value of people’s assets and prevent sellers from obtaining a fair market price.”
it sounds very much like all parties not only had advance knowledge of future policy changes, they were also instrumental in conceiving and implementing the new measures too
Back at home, meantime, public complaints about housing affordability in B.C. was so intense that Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson had released a letter urging Clark to take extraordinary tax measures to cool speculation in the market. Clark’s response said there was no reason to tax luxury housing because Finance Ministry data suggested little evidence that foreign investors made up a significant portion of the market.
If mayor Gregor cares so much why doesnt he shut down Airbnb?
All these developer shills (Libs, NDP, Vision, NPA) are just playing the people. People too dumb to be helped. they keep drinking the koolaid.
AirBnb insignificant compared to foreign $$ and speculation.
Whats with Gregors hair-do these days? He looks like he hooked on meth or something
However, notes for Wat’s 2015 Asia trade mission show a different “master narrative” for internal use only. Potential foreign investors were to be pitched with the argument that the “landmark … progressive and open-minded” sale of the Expo 86 lands to Hong Kong property tycoon Li Ka-shing, a massive transaction in 1988 for one-sixth of Vancouver’s downtown lands, “paved the way for the influx of capital that followed.”
The notes say potential Asian investors were to be told that, “the government’s willingness to permit a foreigner to own a significant portion of Vancouver … marked a significant turning point in the city’s development.”
Just over a year later, in mid-2016, government figures showed foreign investors were indeed driving up prices in some Lower Mainland cities, and Clark’s government brought in the 15 per cent foreign investor tax.
surprised? i think not
This type of collusion is what helped get Clark and the Libs. voted out of office. Clark should be tried as a traitor to the people of BC.
You need to stop thinking of the NDP and Libs as separate entities. Think Critically!
And why do you think they never added to the story? They could have added the NDP refuses to do anything after the fact. Ask yourself why?
MSM going forward with propaganda that the past clark gov to blame and now NDP powerless to do anything since the problem can’t be solved.
Don’t buy the BS.
Reasons why the Canadian property market refuses to fall: Don Pittis
So far low interest rates, a strong economy and large immigration are thwarting the doomsayers.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/realestate-canada-houses-1.4400092
Until politicians start making houses less if an investment and more of a dwelling, things won’t change. Action is needed to stop the slide into madness.
Sales detached hurting, buddy owns high end jewelry shop, says sales have vanished the past year, used to have daily mainlanders come drop 10K ln cash like they buying a candy bar/no dicker just point and pay. he is worried just built a new 3 mill house
Like the vanishing car sales you reported. Who is this clown?
You are the clown. And you are a lying clown at that. Every word that comes out of you is a lie.
didn’t i tell you you are not allowed to post until you develop critical thinking skills? Got it?
Now you are dictating who can and cannot post here? Goof.
You promised to leave a long time ago. Still waiting.
Lie? Hey if the NDP can do it, why can’t people??
And I know how to spot a liar.
I’m going to ignore you after this post.
Did you spot Horgan the liar too before you voted for him?
“I’m going to ignore you after this post. ”
And yet another lie …
I’ll take that clown as more credible than you any day of the week… which isn’t saying very much.
Let’s vanish Oracle… he keeps quacking…. quack quack quack
Saw a line up out the door today at a cash advance loan place, some of them looked like they lived in Point Grey
was there some free salt on offer?
https://biv.com/article/2017/11/china-first-policies-raise-bc-business-concerns/
If you think John MacCallum (& Trudeauuu) put Canada first before China, then read the article.
My Callum is a geriatric with delusions of grandeur and with a knack for making the wrong calls, over and over again.
Saanich family may need $500K more to clean their property’s toxic soil
https://globalnews.ca/news/3859101/saanich-toxic-soil/
this goes to show you that if you plan on buying this sort of property and are basing at least part of your decision on legitimate disclosure in the PDS that the buyer alone is left with all the heavy lifting should something go awry
Where have all the NDP fan boys gone??
But But But NDP are going to come out with a plan…any day now. LMAO. Bring in lower taxes if nothing going to done about housing. User pay everything: Healthcare, seniors homes, education, etc. Thats why Liberals will win next election in a landslide.
NDP blew it (purposely?). They are going back to opposition for the next 16 years in any coming scenario.. Guaranteed.
Super Oracle of pimples , he keeps trying to pop em hoping they go away…but just keep growing back
Chinese real estate portal says investment in Vancouver ‘flat as a pancake’. But UBC expert says a price correction not likely to come any time soon
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-housing-market-flat-1.4400858
Tsur Somerville……ha-ha!
😉
“Vancouver real Estate NEVAH GO DOWN!!!!
Nevah!!!”
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I know lots o small biz in Vancouver who rack in PayPal and don’t report……….bahahahah