BC, economy, opinion, predictions, prices, Uncategorized

Mostly wrong for more than a decade.

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511 Comments

A comment from Ulsterman to kick off the new year:

Well, it’s been almost 15 years of being wrong about this market. Yup, believe it or not back in 2003 people thought prices were too high. Yes, it’s comical now, but at the time when you watched a Commercial Drive condo go from 80k to 115k within a year, people were worried about buying at a peak….

Anyhow, 2018 certainly looks like there are many factors aligned against rising prices:

1) SFH prices have already been falling
2) rates are rising
3) more restrictive lending
4) a kinda/sorta foreign buyers’ tax
5) the upcoming stress test
6) insane debt levels

What i have learned through bitter experience is that the LM market can be incredible resilient, so i won’t get my hopes up for a really significant drop in prices, but i genuinely do think SFH’s will be cheaper a year from now. Will it make a difference to me? Unlikely.

Good luck to all of you in 2018!

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Just me

For the first time in 25 years, Vancouver has municipal, provincial and federal governments making pledges at the same time to invest in housing — a key concern in many parts of B.C., where keeping a roof over one’s head can be a huge financial challenge.

http://vancouversun.com/business/real-estate/so-many-housing-promises-we-inspect-city-provincial-and-federal-plans-to-figure-out-what-will-be-built-when-and-where

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BubbleTea

Damning piece in The Economist about the ease of using shell companies in Canada for ‘snow washing’ dirty money. Our domestic problem is globally recognized!
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21734034-identity-checks-obtain-library-card-are-more-onerous-those-form-private
Its official, we are the money laundering capital of the world. Way to go Justine, Krusty, moombean and others.

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Just mne

No, I cannot believe it. I thought that people who said such things were just a bunch of racist.

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Shut It Down Already

Just me supports those who use racial slurs. End of story.

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Just mne

WHEN reports surfaced in 2016 of foreign students with no known income buying homes worth millions of dollars in Vancouver, locals said it was yet more evidence that foreigners were inflating prices in Canada’s dearest property market. It was also evidence of a home-grown problem. The students turned out to be figureheads for anonymous firms whose ultimate owners cannot be identified because the information is not legally required by the land registry. Canadian authorities are concerned about the abuses caused by such opacity. The property market may well be attracting foreign criminals and corrupt officials seeking to launder dirty money.

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Just mne

Canada’s existing money-laundering and terrorist-financing legislation also contains a gaping hole: lawyers are not covered, because they successfully argued in court that turning over such information violated solicitor-client privilege. One Ontario lawyer bragged to a police undercover agent in 2002 that this victory meant it was 20 times safer for a lawyer to launder money in Canada than in the United States—not the sort of contrast that the Great White North relishes.

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Lost....but not leased

RE Bubble Tea’s link… VCI POSTERS are doing good work adding to the steaming-stinking evidentiary pile. The article duly notes how LAWYERS have literal immunity from transparency via solicitor/client privilege, which simply fosters abuse that might not otherwise occur….hence exacerbates the problem. Again..if this “chokepoint” was identified..why didn’t the Gov’t address it accordingly..hence who actually runs the Gov’t and for who???? IMHO, Canadian Gov’t waived the “white” flag back in the late 1970’s/ early 1980’s, when they tried to juice the economy and had to jump in(master plan?) with 20+ % interest rates. (********NOTE: I don’t think people appreciate the damage done which still resonates today. CANADA is effectively nothing on the World Stage, it has been exposed as a dysfunctional quasi- communist nation held together by band- aids on brink of collapse.****) After that,Canada was subject to an economy… Read more »

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Spec

“dysfunctional quasi- communist nation”….. The hyperbole is palpable. I get the anger and frustration, but wowsers.

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Lost....but not leased

Unless one lived through the governance of the sick joke called Pierre Turdeau…..hyperbole is actually understated.

Turdeau effectively ran the country on par with his hero/buddy Castro….Turdeaus advisors told him to ignore Western Canada..simply kiss Ontario and Quebecs ass and he wins….give or take some swing votes in pogey- fed Maritimes.

Turdeau set the template for all PMs that followed…Canada is not a country..its more like a prison camp.

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Raincity

WAKE UP CANADA!!!

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Spec

Wangs everywhere in mainstream media. Cover for policy makers’ inaction is crumbling OR, conversely, cover for some kind of action improving. I’ll just assume an anti-NDP comment from YVR and Oracle so you guys don’t need to comment on that. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/real-estate-china-b-c-pickton-supreme-court-1.4475376

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crashcow

Jeremy Grantham wrote a piece a couple days ago where he calls for a melt-up/blow-off phase of stocks where the S&P 500 can rise another 40% before crashing 50% (https://www.gmo.com/docs/default-source/research-and-commentary/strategies/asset-allocation/viewpoints—bracing-yourself-for-a-possible-near-term-melt-up.pdf).

For fun, I applied the same scenario to Van RE using the latest stats. Take a look & please comment. I personally wouldn’t be surprised by such a scenario – the euphoria is getting louder.
https://imgur.com/a/MjLRa

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Just me

It would be great. But I have seen that kind of graph so many times in the past 10 years that I urge caution in calling the top.
I will call the top when there is evidence that Chinese buyers start retreating. Until then, I will reserve judgment.

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bestplaceonearth

sour-grape bears have been call the crash since the start of the run in 2004. What else is new!

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Spec

“I will call the top when there is evidence that buyers start retreating. Until then, I will reserve judgment.” There. Fixed that for you.

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Lost....but not leased

Another good scoop: Keep in mind the Federal Reserve was created in 1913…the Great Depression 16 years later. The Depression was created by design, literally to the minute. Churchill witnessed this at NYSE. Perhaps the reason that credit on RE is being reigned in is to “funnel” people into one of the last options…the Stock Market. The graph you show re RE was discussed by vlogger” FORMAFIST ‘and the Bull Trap..which seems to apply to almost any market…a peak followed by a downward trend..which some “suckers”will confuse as a bottoming- out buying opportunity. In fact all they have done is delay natural forces and then a bigger collapse results. The overall graphs show a lot of bisected symmetry, ie if it took “X” years to rise..the collapse is of similar duration. Unlike the collapse of 2008 which appears to be… Read more »

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Best place on meth

DOW 36,000…..then the shit hits the fan.

Late this year or early next.

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Just me

Wang vs Wang: B.C.’s wild real estate market in a nutshell.
Strangers importing money from China, a notorious neighbourhood and arguments to confuse a judge.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/real-estate-china-b-c-pickton-supreme-court-1.4475376

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All-in

All that, plus the guy never accounted for his rental income. They are cheats all the way.

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Lost....but not leased

Re Pickton…

They article notes they leased land to ” farmer ” Dave Pickton.

My guess is they were attempting ” Farm Status ” under the Assessment act.
Long story short….they may have been able to reduce their property taxes by several thousand dollars annually.

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Sebastien

This has to go viral: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/18/00/2018BCSC0009.htm#_Toc502670584

These two families should have their kids breed with one another, it’ll create super-locusts!

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Sebastien

[88] P2 said that she learned in September or October 2010 that her immigration application to Canada had been approved. She wanted to buy a property in Canada but did not know how to do it or how to transfer money to Canada. D1 said she would help her as she had an account with HSBC and was a resident of Macau and P2 could transfer money through her.

Wow…

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Just me

This is the tip of the iceberg. There are literally thousands of these arrangements, varying in scale from millions to a few hundred thousands.

This is the main driver of Vancouver RE markets. Loose credit helps them to leverage funds from Thai land China. But th3 seed money (and the twisted entrepreneurial spirit) are 100% Chinese.

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Shut It Down Already

Not “literally” thousands, but thousands in your opinion.

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Best place on meth

Most like tens of thousands, you worthless HAM denying piece of shit.

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Shut It Down Already

Settle down, you nasty little racist.

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Lost....but not leased

FEDS should be called out….
Seems like the situation was rigged for corruption from the start.
Like “have not” province Quebec as a major point of entry for the bogus Investor program. Slam that door shut asap.

Where are all the SJW re how China is a Communist country with a 2 class system….we allow the corrupt elites into Canada with open arms…when most of their money is based on exploiting 99% of their own countrymen and then sharing the spoils .

Crackdowns by the Chinese Gov’t on corruption??? what a fooking joke…if they wanted a crackdown it would happen yesterday.

END GAME:
The Chinese Gov’t wants their proxy army of foreign locusts to infest and ultimately conquer other nations…THE END.

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All-in

Almost $1.3 million transferred illegally and leveraged into $8.3 million in real estate speculation. There is the problem in Vancouver right there.

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All-in

[545] This case involved two wealthy families from China transferring millions of dollars to Canada, and purchasing three properties in Vancouver. The two families thought it best to not document the basis for their dealings with each other. The two families also thought it best to structure the transactions in ways that disguised true ownership, just as they often did when buying properties in China.

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Lost....but not leased

All -in….IMHO this was an awesome scoop..Thanks.
IMHO it vividly outlines what many of us have suspected…BTW .that quote 545 is radioactive….
Discuss more later.

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Just me

This is the sentence that we should scream off the rooftops to our elected officials:

“The two families also thought it best to structure the transactions in ways that disguised true ownership, just as they often did when buying properties in China.”

The current batch of statistics are effectively junk. We need to measure ownership by mainland Chinese in a reliable way.

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history

Own nothing, control everything?

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Lost....but not leased

One has to wonder WTF ?.. .I wouldn’t trust close friends and family in such a deal, such partnerships are doomed to fail. It seems to indicate that the foreign locusts are desperate to leave China and will hold their noses and jump into bed with any other like – minded foreign locusts. One would love to be a fly on the wall when these shysters meet…they must have felt that the reward exceeds the risk…that both the Chinese and Canadian Gov’t will turn a blind eye to what amounts to tax avoidance, money laundering etc. However…when SHTF (which it almost always does when things go sideways)..the rats come out big time. IMHO, We ain’t seen nothing yet, as the pissed -off greater fools from China will be a HUGE demographic group to deal with locally. What Canada and CRA… Read more »

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Best place on meth

Cui Yun Zhu also known as Cuiyun Zhu
Hai Ling Xia also known as Hailing Xia
Chen Xia also known as Chenchen Xia

What a travesty that these shifty insects are allowed to get away with using all of these aliases, even in court.

There should be only ONE LEGAL NAME used for all legal purposes by all people in this country.

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Lost....but not leased

Foreign Locusts have a variety of names …often anglicized versions as well.

Married Chinese females often keep their maiden name.

PS: You have to pity the Judges in these cases….they must dread having to preside over these messes.

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Oracle

To Meth:

1) YVR is not me.

2) Lost but leased is not me.

3) Racism won’t get you anywhere. Blame your politicians. Quit blaming immigrants.

4) In 4 months, it will be a year since the election. NDP aren’t going to do anything significant. After the referendum fails this fall, an election will be called. Guess who wins?

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Oracle

And I know many former NDP supporters who are going to vote no in the referendum.

The thought of NDP- Green alliance now sickens them. Weaver had all the power in the world to get things done. But he is playing games by saying he can’t do anything.

Fucking renogotiate the confidence and supply agreement. Nows his chance. Fucking liar as well.

Time for Liberals unfortunately again.

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goofus ottawais

Fascist goat fuk and inbred family sawdust eater. Economic profiler of commons rapist. Shit stained useless provider of valuless information and energy

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Just me

Foreigners are banned from buying property in New Zealand — Canada should do the same
Diane Francis: Canada must close loopholes, end secrecy, and ban foreign ownership of real estate.

http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/foreigners-are-banned-from-buying-property-in-new-zealand-canada-should-do-the-same

Cue the naysayers bleating that this will not work….
But you have got to start from somewhere.

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Just me

But Canadian governments remain clueless. Last month, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation claimed misleadingly that “non-residents” own a small portion of housing – a mere 3.4 percent in Toronto and 4.8 percent in Vancouver.

That statement underscores the incompetence of the country and its principal lender.

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history

The arent clueless, they are very smart swine, collect big salaries, and draw astro charts now and then, between orgies. At the latest masked gathering they held hands in a circle, standing buck naked, while pondering satans transit over the goat… hmmm, they said, lets call up the swine bloody media, and fascist fellows down the hall.. its time to write a story about adjusting the Secret Financial Garter Belt we have over humanity.. we’ll pair up and fuk till the pig squeals 666

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Oracle

They aren’t clueless man. Billions probably flowing into overseas bank accounts. Their kids are set for several generations at least.

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history

Fascist sniveller liar and pimplord swine fukker

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patriotz

What level of foreign ownership do you think is consistent with the owner-occupancy rates of 65% in Vancouver CMA and 67% in Toronto CMA? I’m not claiming the CMHC figures are accurate, but what’s a credible ceiling?

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Just me

Patriotz, there is a lot of evidence that foreign ownership, direct or through proxies, is driving our market. The ownership rates you cite are, at best, wild guesses.

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Shut It Down Already

The numbers in your head are way more reliable, naturally.

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Road Warrior

At least 35% IMHO simply judging from the darkened buildings as you walk around DT Vancouver.

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Just me

Ownership is hidden in Canada because the country is a giant secrecy haven where anyone from anywhere can, and does, buy properties through offshore shell companies, nominee shareholders, trusts, or law firm fronts. The only glimpse into the scale of foreign speculation abuse was an analysis in 2015 by anti-corruption organization, Transparency International, of Vancouver’s 100 most valuable property deals: Nearly 50 per cent of ownerships were hidden through shell companies, nominees and trusts.

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Just me

This flood of hidden dirty money from offshore is widespread so how can a federal government agency state that foreign ownership is minuscule? Worse, how many billions has the CMHC loaned to “owners” hiding behind fronts that are not entitled to mortgages subsidized by Canadian taxpayers?

Secrecy facilitates money laundering and has contributed mostly to excessive real estate prices and the fact that Canadian consumer debt is the highest in the world, representing a grave economic risk.

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Just me

Canada is a hot money haven because cash deposits or questionable wire transfers — that cannot be deposited into banks without verifying the source of funds – flow through real estate brokers, developers, and law firms then are deposited into banks for payment.

An example surfaced last May, after a prolonged probe by the Law Society of British Columbia, when a West Vancouver lawyer was found guilty of professional misconduct for allowing $26 million from unknown sources to flow through his trust account even though he did no legal work to earn the money. He was a conduit — like thousands of lawyers, notaries, proxies, and real estate professionals — for helping hide illegal proceeds and money looted from elsewhere into real estate or illicit payments.

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Just me

Lawyers in Australia, Britain, and Europe are now required to determine and disclose the beneficial ownership of any client and provide that information on demand to tax authorities or law enforcement officials.

Last year, the world’s watchdog into money laundering and terrorist financing — the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) launched by the G7 and United Nations – gave Canada a failing grade because of its legal and real estate loopholes.

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Just me

“Requirements [in Canada] are inoperative toward legal counsels, legal firms and Quebec notaries,” said the FATF report. “In light of these professionals’ key gatekeeper role, in particular in high-risk sectors and activities such as real-estate transactions and the formation of corporations and trusts, this constitutes a serious impediment to Canada’s efforts to fight money laundering (or terrorist financing).”

Canada must close loopholes, end secrecy, and ban foreign ownership of real estate.

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Bestplaceonearth

When you copy and paste, put in quotation. Otherwise, people think you are that smart. It’s Friday night, no friends and party?how sad!

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Just me

Just a few points for the annoying prick:
1,When I copy and paste I do it as I bloody well like it.
2.And, yes, this Friday is going pretty well, thanks very much for your concern.
3. Now go and sell some condos, or whatever you do with your life.

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Best place on meth

You should be out partying every Friday night, like Dumb and Dumber.

You know, soaking up the world class culture and nightlife that this incredible laundromat city has to offer.

Amirite?

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Oracle

I’m in bed on a Friday night. What’s wrong with that? The working class waits for Weekends. Not the new Vancouver elite. They can party any nite of the week.

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goofus ottawais

Horse head bed dreaming, class of queue jumpers 1991 Nova Scotia boat people, given free taxi to Toronto

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Best place on meth

bestplace on earth, you sound exactly like that HAM denying scumbag, AIDS.

Do you two share a brain? Who’s turn is it to use it today?

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patriotz

“Foreigners are banned from buying property in New Zealand ”

And once again I must point out this is wrong. They are banned from buying existing housing only, just like in Oz. And to top it off, Australians are exempted from even this. This means that wealthy Chinese immigrants to Oz can buy anything they want in NZ and Chinese in PRC can use them as proxies. As I have said myself:

However, property analysts have said they do not think the new policy will have any serious impact on New Zealand’s affordability crisis, citing the lack of impact Australia’s own foreign buyer limits have had in curtailing foreign buyer appetites.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/new-zealand-follows-through-with-ban-on-foreigners-buying-established-properties-20171102-gzd5dv

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Just me

As I said, you start from somewhere. Then you improve on it.
We should adopt stricter regulations, granted. But anything that makes it harder for mainland Chinese to hoard RE is good. Anything at this point.

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Lost....but not leased

I don’t doubt this patriotz…

In the big picture, anyone with a modicum of understanding ( ie maybe 5% or less of the given voter base ) realizes that any fix is often token, the damage has been done. As it stands..even if NZ shuts the door completely, trapped within are a lot of foreign buyers. NOW WHAT?

Anything that is a threat to the status quo will have RE PIMPS such as lawyers, accountants, digging for loopholes.

Finally, any quantifiable impact is usually as a result of bubble bursts, not gov’t action.

As I have said numerous times, the condo market is the one to watch, SFH market is increasingly irrelevant( ie we know its going South…duhhhhh) .

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kabloona

In case you missed it…

😀

Statistics Canada ‘Got It Wrong’ On Foreign Homebuyers, Anti-Corruption Group Says

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/01/05/statistics-canada-got-it-wrong-on-foreign-homebuyers-anti-corruption-group-says_a_23325177/

“An anti-corruption watchdog group says Statistics Canada “got it wrong” in a report last month that left the impression foreign buyers aren’t a major part of Canada’s housing market.

Transparency International Canada, which has been raising the alarm for years about money-laundering in the country’s real estate markets, says StatsCan could not have possibly gotten the numbers right on foreign ownership — because it lacks the tools needed to know just how much property is foreign-owned…”

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Best place on meth

All of us on VCI knew those numbers were incomplete.

Even the serial liars.

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Bestplaceonearth

Year, cuz you have been blind for so long.

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Shut It Down Already

There are no numbers which would satisfy you because your opinions are not based on facts or data.

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Just me

It feels good to see that so many people realize the true impact of foreign money and warn against it.
The only deniers are those who profit from it. And a small pocket of confused individuals, who are apparently unwilling to recognize that earth is not flat.
Next step: serious policies to address this massive problem.

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Just me

“One major part of the problem is that Canada is among a shrinking number of developed countries that don’t require that the “beneficial owners” of corporations be revealed. In other words, it is possible to establish a shell company in Canada without disclosing who exactly owns it.

And because many properties in Canada are owned by shell corporations, it’s impossible to say exactly how much Canadian real estate is in the hands of foreign owners, TI Canada says. The group estimated last year that the government has no idea who actually owns half of the priciest properties in Vancouver.”

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Just me

“Only in Kenya and a select few U.S. states is it easier to set up an untraceable company than it is in Canada,” TI said at the time.

“In Canada, more rigorous identity checks are done for individuals getting library cards than for those setting up companies.”

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Just me

McCarrell outlined weaknesses in the data released so far. He noted, for example, that a home owned by a shell company incorporated in Canada would count as Canadian-owned in StatsCan’s data, even if the owners were foreigners.

Anik Lacroix, an assistant director in StatsCan’s investment, science and technology division, says much more detailed data is on the way.

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Just me

“It is early stages” for the agency’s efforts in building a comprehensive picture of foreign ownership of housing, she told HuffPost Canada this week.

“I know everybody wants us to produce everything all at once, but we are just taking it step by step,” she said.

The agency is going through a process of collecting the necessary data from governments and the private sector, and has to assess quality as well, Lacroix said.

In a release slated for this spring, StatsCan hopes to expand the picture of foreign ownership to include homeowner incomes and potentially mortgage data as well.

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Just me

The agency also hopes to link home ownership data to census information, to create more detailed profiles of households. That would allow it, for example, to determine just how many foreign students are living in homes purchased by their parents — a phenomenon that seems to exist, to some extent, in Vancouver.

But Transparency International’s Cohen is not optimistic about the outcome of StatsCan’s efforts.

He says that while he’s “happy to see” that the agency recognizes the challenges it faces, StatsCan will not be able to find the information it needs to paint an accurate picture of foreign ownership; the data simply isn’t out there.

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Just me

Cohen is urging policymakers to follow in the footsteps of other G20 countries, and pass legislation requiring the creation of registries where the beneficial owners of shell companies are made public. He noted that the European Union recently updated its money-laundering laws to require the registration of beneficial owners.

“As our partners move ahead, Canada is falling increasingly behind,” he said. And that poses a risk, Cohen said, because as other countries make it more difficult to hide wealth in real estate, it will make Canada a more attractive place for illicit cash.

“This was a wake up call for yet another Canadian agency that we don’t have full info on who owns what in Canada.”

Without legislative changes that increase transparency in ownership of companies, StatsCan “will be on a path to frustration,” Cohen said.

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Funny how

https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CNYCAD:CUR

Funny how the CNY peaked when SFH did in 2016…..important chart to watch re prices in van going forward

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Best place on meth

That was quite the favourable exchange rate for them, 1 loonie worth 4.5 locusts.

The other factor in 2015 was the crackdown on corrupt officials.

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Abdul Lahazi

How much are Vancouver’s best-known properties worth?

http://vancouversun.com/business/commercial-real-estate/how-much-are-vancouvers-best-known-properties-worth

These values are low considering what that one acre site on West Georgia just sold for… $245 million I think it was.

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kabloona

Well, so much for that ploy…..
She should have chosen better representation for herself….

😉

‘Mickey Mouse’ certificate complaint dismissed

😀

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/court-dismisses-complaint-about-mickey-mouse-certificate-for-aboriginal-studies-course

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Abdul Lahazi

Good. She sounds like quite a twit.

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Ulsterman

Sadly it looks like my greatest success in real estate will be generating 409 comments on VCI! Thankfully the stock portfolio has performed better than the non-existent real estate portfolio.

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Abdul Lahazi

In spite of what the pumpers here would like us to believe, you could do a lot worse than renting on the westside for a fraction of the cost of ownership.

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Best place on meth

I hope you’ve been invested in pot.

I’ve never had I week like this one, not even close.

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Abdul Lahazi

Ever higher highs. But it could all go up in smoke …

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Shut It Down Already

Typical Vancouverite chasing the next get-rich-quick scheme.

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Best place on meth

Cryptocurrencies are a get rich quick scheme.

Meanwhile, the cannabis industry which has been a real and sizable part of this country’s economy is moving from the black market to the legitimate economy.

Investing in that is smart.

Not that you would know anything about smart, you worthless HAM denying traitorous sack of dogshit.

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Indicator

Mercedes and BMW sales tanked in December in Vancouver FACT ships about to hot the fan

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Oracle

Most wealthy are out of country in sunny climates in December. Wait for March.

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paulb

New
86
Price Change
14
Sold
55
TI:6659

Readers, if you ever want info on sales or listing activity in your hood or area of interest shoot me an email. I send many users weekly updates each Friday to help keep them in the loop. No question to big or small. pboenisch@sothebysrealty.ca http://www.clivestevepaul.com

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KickThemOut

Who’s excited about the 16K party?! The inventory is going to be like a landslide! NO! More like a 100 year tsunami! It’s going to wipe out all the homeowers! 2018 is the year bears will be proven right! Sell now or be priced in forever! ™

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Best place on meth

GO BACK TO CHINA, PRICK!

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Shut It Down Already

Spoken like a true moron.

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Oracle

Yeah if inventory stays at this level after the NDP no show Budget, then prices going up another 30%.

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Bestplaceonearth

Yep, bears will get free housing and a year supply of needles. Meanwhile, the homeowners and the rich work their arses off to pay taxes.

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Best place on meth

Most of those 55 sales are from last year.

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patriotz

B.C. NDP government must deal with both cost and public trust issues in new housing policy However, it has now likely dawned on B.C.’s new government that there are limited levers at its disposal to assure the construction of housing stock that is affordable to entry-level buyers. Land costs in Metro Vancouver are what they are. The only way for developers to get their money back for the ridiculous amounts they are paying for parcels of land in the region is to charge a ridiculous amount per square foot for the condos they are building. Most of what he says makes sense, but this is completely wrong. Land costs are endogenous to the RE industry. That is, land owners have nobody to sell to except the RE industry, and the RE industry is only willing to pay a price for… Read more »

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BBB

The developers have threatened the NDP government that it will immediately stop building new units and make the rental crisis much worse. Lets see if anyone blinks.

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patriotz

I think you are just making this up – there are way too many developers for them to organize and speak with one voice – but if true it would be a conspiracy in restraint of trade subject to criminal prosecution.

The NDP has never been popular with the developers but they kept on building through 3 NDP governments in the past, for the same reason as always, it’s how they make money.

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Abdul Lahazi

This is fake news. Developers develop… that is what they do. They cannot stop building or they will go out of business.

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history

“Pareto efficiency …. indicates that no one can be made better off without someone being made worse off. There can be many possible Pareto efficient allocations of resources and not all of them may be equally desirable by society.[2] “This appears to make the case that intervention has a legitimate place in policy – redistributions can allow us to select from all efficient outcomes for one that has other desired features, such as distributional equity. The shortcoming is that for the theorem to hold, the transfers have to be lump-sum and the government needs to have perfect information on individual consumers’ tastes as well as the production possibilities of firms. An additional mathematical condition is that preferences and production technologies have to be convex”. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_theorems_of_welfare_economics The theory behind the…. ….. Handouts for Swine HOG applicants… just because a Bullshit jobber… Read more »

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KickThemOut

Sounds like a lot of bears on this blog.

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Best place on meth

GO BACK TO CHINA, PRICK!

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Lost....but not leased

IMHO, the NDP is changing horses…

Their recent moves and policies seem to indicate they don’t give a shite what Weaver and his Greens think…NDP is going after Liberal votes and de facto telling Weaver that they won’t be blackmailed and Greens will be extinct after next election if they try anything.

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YVR

There is no question so far the NDP have kept the status quo. So much for all that squeeling the NDP did about the Liberal policies they have kept since getting elected. Liberal voters are not coming over to the NDP no matter what the NDP does. It is like Kia copying a Mercedes. Mercedes buyers are not buying a Kia. I do think a lot of NDP voters will flip to Green. Especially after the Site C betrayal. Housing will be another factor. Greens are now a viable option. The NDP will get wiped out next election.

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history

NDP have been told by the pork$ marketing board that Heloc Mortgage Swine are not to be slaughtered, just yet….. even though their meat is prime grade pork, fat, succulent, ideal for winter conditions, of a top grade that presents the best utility to affect positive change in our society…. they are still building the necessary rendering facilities… time

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BBB

Exactly. Liberals will win the next election due to split and people will want much lower taxes. Secure a place to live and set up a business as opposed to salary income (taxed heavily) and you will be good.

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BBB

Exactly. They are hoping to get the Liberal homeowner vote. Renters who pay salaried income taxes are the sacrificial lamb.

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Best place on meth

All three of you are full of shit and sound exactly like oracle.

That fucker is contagious.

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Bestplaceonearth

The writing is on the wall. You are too comfortable in your warm cozy moist mama basement to realize it.

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Meep meep

2843 e 20th st Vancouver, this is a hack job of a flip , only a sucker would buy it …. let’s see if it sells

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Laibach

It should go at least 70% down to be worth considering for someone to buy it to actually live in it and not a fucking trading instrument.

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Bear Vancouverite

I had an interesting conversation with a Branch manager and a Personal Banking Manager from one of the “Big 5” banks a couple of weeks ago. Despite whatever the news have reported, at least this bank has sent out memos to management that they will be pursuing residential mortgage business less aggressively in 2018, and that branches are expected to find new alternate business avenues to make up the shortfall. On the fliipside, I also spoke to a mortgage brokerage manager. They had to hire extra staff to handle the increase in applications from Nov-Dec, and they intend to hire more in 2018. They aren’t concerned about the Stress Test affecting their business and expect it to improve since more people will need their help to find a mortgage now that the Big 5 banks will slow down on their… Read more »

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best place on earth

good business for the local credit unions.

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history

http://evonomics.com/why-capitalism-creates-pointless-jobs-david-graeber/

The famous article that gave us the term Bullshit Jobs

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kabloona

Thanks, good read…… 😀

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Best place on meth

Except that the credit unions can’t get the funding.

Other than that glaring error, you’re spot on as usual.

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YVR

The NDP should make the credit unions follow the same rules. After all the BC tax payer guarantees these credit unions. Too bad the NDP will never do the right thing.

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Best place on meth

Great job YVRacle!

Never miss an opportunity to change the subject to how everything is the NDP’s fault!

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YVR

Who’s fault is it the credit unions do not have to follow the new rules? It is up to Carol James and Horgan to make the change.

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kabloona

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-05/most-big-canadian-banks-expect-jobs-data-to-force-poloz-s-hand 😉 Most Big Canadian Banks Expect Jobs Data to Force Poloz’s Hand By Greg Quinn and Erik Hertzberg January 5, 2018, 9:35 AM PST All but one of Canada’s six biggest commercial lenders now say the central bank will raise interest rates this month after the jobless rate dropped to its lowest in modern records. Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce changed their forecasts after a Statistics Canada report Friday showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 5.7 percent in December, from 5.9 percent the previous month, on the strength of 78,600 new jobs. “Given the tremendous progress made in narrowing labor market slack — an area highlighted by the Bank of Canada in recent communication — we think that today’s report is enough to push” Governor Stephen… Read more »

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Burnabonian

It’s like every method of deflating a housing bubble had been stacked into the magazine of an M240 light machine gun which is aimed firing-squad style at Vancouver’s housing market.

Standing behind Vancouver’s market with a blindfold on are Toronto’s market and behind that is all of Canadian housing.

Oh right and the trigger has been pulled back and duct taped there by Red Green.

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HHaHa

5 Yr cdn Bond yield nearly 2% today, slowly shes creeping up mortgage rates up up up

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Burnabonian

RAT TAT TAT TAT!

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Diadora

About Time!: CRA targets rich neighbourhoods.
http://www.nsnews.com/news/cra-targets-rich-neighbourhoods-1.23134772
Gallivan said the first step the taxman is taking is determining the ownership of the homes. “A lot of these homes are owned by corporations or trusts or people who are non-residents,” he said.
“Right at the outset what we’re seeing in some cases is the income they’re reporting is not enough to pay the property tax,” he said.

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Lost....but not leased

I was watching a documentary on history of Hong Kong…

One little tidbit that stood out was the Chinese “merchant ” class..this group was historically mistrusted.
Nothings changed ?!?

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bullwhip29

one would think that given all the shenanigans going on in Richmond with regard to money laundering, rampant tax evasion, “sketchy” land deals, shadow flipping, outlawed real estate firms and agent not to mention all the illegal blueberry farms, hotels, spas, massage parlours, casinos and fake store fronts operating as money refineries that it would be the obvious choice by the CRA for further review, but i for one am not holding my breath anything will happen in what should be obvious to everyone is the epicentre of everything that is wrong in this country

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kabloona

Nicely updated avatar…..

😉

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Laibach

That is a huge Canadian problem. All those shenanigans are seen as part of national culture, heritage, and identity of those who practice them, therefore any attempt to stop the ongoing shitshow are labeled racist by practitioners and their loud domestic supporters (a.k.a. beneficiaries). Until that problem gets fixed not much will be done to eradicate that devastating “flavor of multiculturalism” for once and all.

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Just me

In certain neighbourhoods – like Chartwell and Ambleside – the percentage of “low income” families was between 25 and 33 per cent of all households. Gallivan said the CRA also has access to other sources of data, including notices of any electronic funds transfers of $10,000 or more going back to 2015.

Analysts look to see if there is a financial flow that warrants a closer examination, said Gallivan: “Is the person sending a lot of money offshore? Or bringing money into Canada?” And most important, is that consistent with what’s been officially reported?

If the answers don’t match up, the Canada Revenue Agency may begin an audit, which can include exchanging information with tax authorities in other countries, said Gallivan. “Some of these tax filers are sending us right to their lawyer,” he said.

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Laibach

They need the real Eliot Ness there. It will be very tough bloody fight given the skills of those bandits when it comes to lying, fudging, forging, falsifying, misrepresentation, altering documentation, fake IDs, bogus identities and everything else that they mastered to perfection.

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Lost....but not leased

Sad thing is, CRA ( ie Gov’t ) has always had the means and the tools to do this, the missing point in the equation was the political will.

Now we have to determine if the GOV’T had something triggered( besides citizen revolts)to finally get the CRA in gear.

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Best place on meth

“A former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, David Mulroney, expressed surprise that the Liberal MP would approach the embassy on behalf of Mr. Gong, and praised Ms. Termorshuizen for giving the letter to the Mounties.

“It suggests a pretty shocking misunderstanding on the part of the MP on how our system works,” Mr. Mulroney told The Globe and Mail on Thursday. “It is the kind of thing you do in China … when you try to use your prestige or connections to smooth something over. It is not how things are done in Canada.”

Jesus fucking christ, get these vermin out of our country already!

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Oracle

Carole James on the radio show today. Saying they are going to look very hard at supply and the red tape limiting development in municipalities.

LMAO

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best place on earth

oh yeah, and they are setting up review of agricultural land too.

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DaMann

LOL, we don’t have a supply problem, we have a speculation problem. A money laundering problem, a tax evasion problem. If nothing is done about those they can add all the supply they want and they will get snatched up for use as poker chips.
It’s perfectly obvious NO political party wants to touch real estate

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best place on earth

tell that to Ms. James.

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