Hey it’s almost summer!
It’s also definitely the end of the week and that means it’s time for another friday free for all, our regular end of the week open topic discussion thread for the weekend.
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes in the comments below and have an excellent weekend!
“Forcing developers to make preconstruction condo units available to all potential buyers at the same time and the same price is something B.C.’s Finance Minister says she is open to trying in order to help make real estate more affordable in and around Vancouver. ”
Where and when folks are ethically challenged, we need rules to disincentivise malfeasance. I can’t believe there aren’t common sense rules around this already… but, somehow, I can believe it considering rules around campaign funding (until recently).
Wow the NDP acting on another Globe and Mail article? Its like they need to be told what to do.
Perhaps Kathy T should replace that dried up union hack Carole James?
The alternative is having the Libcreds NOT act on anything.
Try to be more appreciative of the current government.
We should appreciate Eby stating prior to the election the BC Liberals were corrupt for not implementing the foreign buyers tax on presales and then after the election the NDP does the exact same thing. You are easy to impress. I would hate to see what the NDP would have to do to disappoint you.
Don’t confuse acting with political spin after getting caught and called out. I suspect we have a new study coming.
You’re incorrigible.
Sorry the NDP cheer leading team is all full. You should be more appreciative of someone who comes here to point out what you are unable to see for yourself due to your hyper political partisanship. You will thank me later.
Are foreign buyers being ‘scapegoated?’ This B.C. senator thinks so
https://globalnews.ca/news/4178140/foreign-buyers-scapegoats-bc-senator/
Yuen Pau Woo Does not represent the views of the majority of British Columbia, and he certainly does not represent me. In fact, I resent the fact the current government installed this person in such a high profile position for motives that, at least partly, have to do with the relentless pursuit of diversity. One would expect that the government appointments to the senate are done with at least some attention to the objective of having someone whose views align with those of the people he/she represents. One might argue this would be the primary and over-riding objective.
Sadly, Yuen Pau Woo does not even come close to represent BC residents. And he is making a mockery of himself and his office.
Thanks Trudeau.
Look at the most recent census. I think he represents the lower mainland perfectly.
Thank you for your insight, Senator Communist China Man.
The motherland thanks you as well.
Love this tweet from Barry: Just received an email from @CityofVancouver asking for my feedback on how they should use the $30 million revenue from EHT. I would suggest using the money to create an enforcement branch to collect the $70 million you’ve left on the table.
New
375
Price Change
101
Sold
163
TI:10459
Justin Trudeau announces new Amazon Vancouver headquarters to bring 3,000 jobs
https://globalnews.ca/news/4176455/vancouver-amazon-headquarters/
I’m not sure why selfie ‘Justin Trudeau’ is announcing this since it’s Amazon that’s actually announced it. But anyways it begs the question where will they get 3,000 new tech workers when they can’t afford to live here? But I am glad to see the old post office building being re-purposed for this new venture.
They’ll pay salaries which allow people to live here. So that puts additional upward pressure on rents.
I’d like to believe that they would pay good salaries, but recalling that the city’s HQ2 bid bragged about how little people are paid here, I have my doubts.
That’s a comparison made against tech workers in other cities rather than against non-tech workers in Vancouver.
Fair point. And it might mean more bodies competing for shelter. I will remain curious as to just how far the pay for those 3k new jobs will go towards “allow[ing] people to live here”.
Amazon management did not read this blog. Workers leave this town in drove lol, and they are setting up new shop here! What gives?
Amazon in Vancouver. Some thoughts based on many years of observations. 1. There will be a big number of white collar TFWs. Yes, big chunk of Amazon Vancouver software folks are foreigners who were either denied H1B (unlucky ones) or deliberately have chosen Vancouver over Seattle (stupid ones). Funny enough, most of those “unlucky” start looking south there very first day at work and eventually (within a few years) either get transferred to Amazon Seattle or find an H1B position in the Valley or in Seattle with another company (they use Vancouver as a base for flying to US job interviews). Why do they look south? Right, because life is expensive here and compensation is 2-3 times lower than down south (this is NOT an understatement). Also, turnover rate in Amazon is relatively high (regardless of the location), so those… Read more »
Their workers will be able to live here, but most of them won’t be able to afford to buy here until the real estate market crashes. Amazon won’t be opening this office until 2022 which means there’s 4 years for the housing implosion to happen. It might help to shorten the length of the crash though if high paid tech employees start arriving in a dead real estate market. They’ll have money to spend where anyone whose wages were tied to real estate will likely be hamstrung by unemployment and poverty.
Amazon is one of the world’s worst employer. Only 15% of employees last more than 5 years and some got fired for attending funerals. The NYT made a piece on that. How is this good news?
USA no renwing many H1B Visas so those workers will move here as TFWs and IMPs.
“Justin Trudeau announces new jobs that had nothing to do with anything he did”
Douglas Todd: Immigration disappointment looms for Canada’s young foreign students
“Burnaby immigration lawyer George Lee agrees that the latest trend in China and other countries is for many parents to send their children to Canada to attend high school and even elementary school, so that they will be at a competitive advantage when later applying to immigrate.
“Since they are coming as young children,” said Lee, “their parents believe they will adapt much easier to Canadian culture and language and the workplace” and thus be ranked highly when they apply for permanent resident status. Most Chinese foreign students who are minors, Lee added, have the added pressure of knowing their parents expect them to eventually sponsor them to immigrate.”
““The math says you’re soon going to end up with 250,000 people who came here when they were aged seven, nine and 11 and now they’re 22, 23 and 24 and they’re going to college and they’re going to get a three-year work permit and most of them are likely to apply for permanent residency,” Kurland said.”
Why would Canada want all those skilled educated young people anyway?
Yeah, not like we’ve got a demographic problem and no one to pay taxes to support geriatric European Canadians…. I’m no fan of our immigration system, but giving residency to highly skilled foreigners that want to work here doesn’t seem like the worst idea. They work here, they pay taxes here, they buy things in Canada, and if they came here when they were young they are fluent in English. Sadly most of them will want to move to the USA or back to China to make more money. Canada’s wages are too low and our cost of living too high for most highly skilled workers to stay.
Massive immigration is not good for the country or the economy. If it was just a numbers game then India and China would be the best countries in the world to live in and they clearly are not. Some immigration of people with the right type of skills is good obviously but not the open door immigration policy of come one come all that we promote here in Canada.
China and India are not exactly popular destination countries for immigrants.
What’s more, Canada does not have the open door policy you’d love to present it as. There are criteria that have to be met. The bar isn’t exactly low, either.
Canada is the world’s fourth most popular destination for foreign students, according to Project Atlas. There are 140,000 Chinese students in the country, with more than 50,000 in British Columbia, which hosts one quarter of all the country’s international students. The second largest cohort is from India (130,000), followed by much smaller numbers from South Korea, France and Vietnam.”
“Canada is going to get far too many permanent resident applicants from foreign students, Kurland said, with Lee adding that the trend among Mainland Chinese parents “is to eventually follow their children” to Canada “while investing in the local housing market and transferring their assets overseas.”
Nothing to see here. As long as we call them immigrants it doesn’t count as foreign money. #welcometoCanada. Trudeau you’re doing a great job. Keep that door wide open.
“As long as we call them immigrants it doesn’t count as foreign money.”
You nailed it on the head. It is not the passport, it is the source of the money that matters.
The sooner we accept this fact and do something about it, the better.
Metro Vancouver gas prices set North American record
Woo Hoo!! We are #1 in gas prices!
http://www.news1130.com/2018/04/30/gas-prices-north-american-record/
Thanks partly to the NDP!
2018 is the year of the Squeeze. Everything is going up in price. Wait until you renew your car insurance. I just bought a new car and so I renewed. Cost was way up.
Mine was the same.
That’s because you have had 11 accidents and already have a 600% surcharge due to your poor driving record. I understand you will be targeted in the new changes being made to ICBC. Or…… You live in China and don’t own a car. Is this you: They are the most hated group in Chinese cyberspace. They are, to hear their ideological opponents tell it, “fiercely ignorant,” keen to “insert themselves in everything,” and preen as if they were “spokesmen for the country.” Westerners bemoan their propensity to beat the drum of nationalism, bombard Chinese liberals with personal attacks, and pollute online dialogue with wave after wave of strident propaganda. While their ranks have been unknown and their precise inner workings uncertain, at least everyone agrees on their name: wumao, or 50-centers, slang for the 50 Chinese cents they allegedly receive… Read more »
Get help.
The carbon tax is a big part of this:
The $5/t increase is a compromise the BC NDP struck with the Green Party, as the Green platform had originally proposed a $10/t annual increase. The carbon tax has stuck around $30/t since 2012 as the previous BC Liberal government showed no inclination to increase it further other than to match the federal carbon price floor in 2021.
Quilchena Park-area residents feel betrayed by developer
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/quilchena-park-area-residents-feel-betrayed-by-developer
‘An absolute gong show’: Move over Vancouver, Whistler is now Canada’s craziest housing market
http://vancouversun.com/real-estate/whistler-now-tops-vancouver-as-canadas-craziest-housing-market/wcm/76f7a2b2-7b0d-412a-9789-fd805c6c3719
Our whistler rental 2 bedroom condo was assessed at $723,000 last year and it sold this march for $1,250,000
PS: when I say “our Whistler rental” I meant it is where we rent when we go to Whistler. We do not own it.
Maybe Whistler Or Bust blames foreigners for making him buy at close to the market peak?
We bought in Jan 2015.
Our place is in a family neighbourhood and sadly all these price increases have done is drive out local families. It was a huge stretch for us to buy when we did and only could because we have a rental suite. Every house sold now is not being bought by families like us.
It means nothing that prices are up as we aren’t selling as we will likely retire there. All it means is less families, and higher taxes.
If all homeowners were as intelligent as you showed to be in the last post, Vancouver would be a much better place to live in.
Homes are for housing families and people who work and create a community, not to use as a chip in the worldwide casino.
Except that WoB does not live in Whistler. He apparently rents in Vancouver so IMO he is part of the problem in Whistler; absentee owners who live elsewhere buying property in Whistler and driving up prices while letting the property sit empty.
Exactly. Even though it has a suite the remainder of the property is unavailable to local families.
Ok I’ll bite. Not because I care what you think but I will because I am a semi-active member of this site. You are correct I do rent in Vancouver. You are entitled to your opinion that I am absentee owner but between our use and that of friends and family (that we are happy to allow to use it) it is occupied about 200 nights a year. The rental suite which is being rented out (at a reasonable and fair rate) to two young people is occupied 365 days a year. We recently allowed the tenant’s family from St. John’s to use it for free for a week. Unlike many owners who simply removed their suites or are charging ridiculous rents to desperate young people who simply want somewhere to live we believe we are part of the solution… Read more »
I’m guessing your friends and family don’t live in Whistler either, so that occupancy figure is irrelevant.
well, if you are so smart, why are you still a basement dweller?
“It means nothing that prices are up as we aren’t selling as we will likely retire there”
Can you explain this to the stubborn bears in this blog, hopefully they can understand it.
Are prices lower than 1 year ago when NDP and Greens won power?
If yes, then success.
If no, and you are cheering the NDP GReens then joke is on you.
Says the troll who voted for them.
“Are prices lower than 1 year ago when NDP and Greens won power?”
Since I’m only going to participate in this market to acquire a detached place, then the answer is yes (though I don’t attribute that outcome entirely to them). Any other questions?
Also, the month of May starts tomorrow and I’ve got a new VCI bingo card. I’m thinking I’ll be able to cross off three squares within the first week:
– Oracle makes a comment about leaving/ not posting here often while also representing >10% of post volume on a given thread
– Oracle references “sources”
– Oracle makes at least ten references to people being duped by the NDP/Greens on a single thread
Don’t let me down buddy!
China’s Foreign Investment Growth Slows Despite ‘Opening Up’ – Analysis
“Derek Scissors, an Asia economist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said that China is not interested in attracting FDI for its own sake, although it would have welcomed more investment in 2015-2016 when it was worried about net capital outflows.
China’s main goal instead is to gain the technology transfer that comes with FDI, Scissors argued.
“What they want is knowledge from foreign companies so they can drive them out of business,” he said.”
Maybe companies are finally getting sick of having their IP stolen then bootlegged on the black market. It took them long enough…..
Getting sick and tired of being ripped off, cheated, lied to, scammed, having your ideas stolen?
Just pull out of china and never look back!
“Retiree Yu Shao purchased at least four units in the Burnaby development, while Han Ting Shao, with the same home address, bought and flipped two more. The younger Shao, listed as a “student,” grossed $281,220 from those transactions.
A speculator listed on the MLS only as “S Li” flipped at least two units in one Vancouver development plus two in another, sales worth $2.3-million. The listings reveal only that he or she is a “seller in Asia.”
Much of the local business still revolves around the so-called “whale realtors,” however, who seek out and open the door for investors, then help them resell.”
“Realtor Shirley Dang-Kramer told The Globe that she is proud of an award she received for selling “most of the units” in three towers still under construction at Westbank’s Kensington Gardens in Vancouver – some multiple times.”
“Everything is going to go up in price, and that’s just the way it is,” she said. “People are either jealous or they are not in the market.”
“People are either jealous or they are not in the market”
She summed up the VCI usual idiots philosophy in one ridiculous sentence.
“People are either jealous or they are not in the market” … or they believe that widespread speculation and access to affordable housing can’t co-exist and governments should have done something about it 20 years ago. I guess that’s just my jealousy talking again. I should have acted like a greedy Chinese person and bought 10 condos and flipped them when I had the chance.
yes it’s all about real estate and profits. nothing else matters at all to these people. They would sell out their own mothers for a buck.
We’re not in China
Toronto restaurant ordered to pay $10,000 after asking black customers to prepay for their meal
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-toronto-restaurant-ordered-to-pay-10000-after-asking-black-customers/
Multiculturalism, what is wrong with that?
They should have asked all non-asians to prepay then it would have been totally fine. Organizing yourself into asian enclaves and not talking to any other ethnicities is the Canadian way.
Here comes AIDS to stick up for these poor victims of racism!
Oh wait, it’s just black people being discriminated against by chinese.
Never mind.
More from Kathy. “Flipping of condo units by insiders fuels hot Vancouver market”
Granted, it’s from six buildings so the sample size is small, but it’s most definitely not meaningless.
Another great article!
Kathy Tomlinson is in full form. One of the best investigative journalists in North America.
“The most sought-after condos under construction in Canada’s priciest real estate market are being snapped up in private deals involving developers, select realtors and speculators.
Many of those players later flip the units for much higher prices, sucking up supply, further driving up prices and leaving Vancouver-area residents increasingly desperate for an affordable place to live.
Those outside the inner circle are in the dark about who those exclusive first buyers are. To shine a light on that, the Globe and Mail spent weeks piecing together available data on just who bought and flipped condos in six new high-rise buildings.”
““The whole process is so unfair. It’s about greed and profits. It absolutely is manipulated before you even get a shot at it,” said Mr. Ross, who also learned that insiders get first access to buy certain units.
“It’s not a free market. There are different rules for different people.”
The Globe’s investigation discovered real estate agents with local or foreign clients who buy multiple units have preferential first access, along with other industry players such as private financiers.”
““You will see the same names,” she said, referring to buyers with exclusive access. “They are not buying just one or two – some are buying lots. It’s all behind closed doors, and there is no regulation of who is getting what.”
In the six developments − three completed and three under construction − there were at least 24 realtors among the speculators who bought in early. Another 20 had the same names as local realtors, but some of them listed their occupation on property records as “businessperson.” (Realtors are required to disclose their interest in a property but only to the other parties involved in a sale.)
A guide written for developers by Key Marketing, a Vancouver firm that markets pre-construction condos, suggests it’s in a developer’s best interest to give such realtors special treatment.”
“Another 56 speculators had no Canadian address or listed a foreign one. Some listed their occupation as “student” or “homemaker,” which, in Vancouver, often indicates that purchases were made with foreign money, usually from China.”
Those motherfuckers screwed us all up the big time and yet still walk around freely, shame.
We should be blaming the government more than the dirtbags that the government allowed to screw over our housing market. After all, it’s a Chinese cultural norm to exploit the system, and hoard limited resources to price gouge everything you can. You can’t really blame a snake if it bites you it’s the snake’s nature to do it. The government is supposed to protect us from threats, including financial, from foreign and domestic sources. They have summarily failed to do their job at all three levels of government. After the crash they are the ones I will be blaming, and I recommend you join me.
I unreservedly agree. The governments at all levels failed us.
We are in the process of fixing that. But the push back is massive.
We all need to hold steady and provide full support to the ongoing reforms.
Where is Eby? Is he back in hiding? Last year at this time Eby said the BC Liberals were corrupt for not applying the foreign buyers tax to presales. Clearly the problem is worse now than ever. Hypocrite.
“We should be blaming the government more than the dirtbags that the government allowed to screw over our housing market. ”
Yes, but most of all we should be blaming, tar & feathering, and hanging the motherfucking scum who constantly cried racism every time people mentioned the disgusting cultural behaviours being practiced in our country.
Scum like AIDS are the vilest lowlifes ever to inhabit this country.
““Half were investors and half people who want to live there, but most of them came back [later] to resell,” he said. “They made the most money in the last two years. Three hundred to four hundred thousand [dollars] they are making on their flips.”
Speculators such as Mr. Ge’s clients, who buy and flip contracts preconstruction, are supposed to report their earnings as income or capital gains; however, other realtors told The Globe that dodging those taxes is part of the attraction for some players.
The B.C. government is trying to change that, by bringing in a law requiring developers to report all condo shadow flips to the province and the Canada Revenue Agency.”
“Two of the condos Mr. Ge picked up for himself were registered in his wife’s name, Qi Mei Han. When the couple sold them postconstruction, they made a gross profit of more than $340,000.”
“Mr. Ge was the listing realtor who sold his own properties, with his wife named as owner and no mention of their connection. He claims he did tell the buyers he had a stake in the transaction. His wife calls herself a “realtor’s assistant” and has served to obscure Mr. Ge’s interests before. She was on a list of “local residents” – along with other realtors’ family members – who wrote letters to Burnaby City Council to voice support for the developer’s plans at Station Square, which the city had yet to approve at the time. Ms. Han even posed as the buyer of a property purchased by one of her husband’s clients a few years back. The client was from China and could not get financing, so Ms. Han agreed to take out a mortgage and put the property… Read more »
#WelcomeToCanada. More high-quality immigrants welcomed in with open arms and open political wallets. Thanks Trudeau. And Harper too of course.
Got a drive through Sunset today. More than 180 empty homes for sure.
If you know for sure, why don’t you snitch ?
I did.
Really? You actually did it? You are a snake! You are a loner with no friends, are you not!
Aren’t the people who are evading taxes and lying the snakes?
Get your priorites straight man!
Quite supporting people who steal from taxpayers. There’s a word for that. Starts with “F”, ends with “reeloader”.
BPOE you are a sub-human parasite, and I have nothing but contempt for you.
Good for you. A defender of the everyman!
Anyone who calls you a snitch is someone evading taxes.
Palma de Mallorca to ban residents renting apartments to tourists
“It is the capital of one of Europe’s most popular holiday destinations but Palma de Mallorca will be the first city in Spain to ban private homeowners from renting their apartments to visitors. There will be fines of up to €400,000 for those who violate the new restrictions, which come into force in July.”
Wow, fines up to $600,000 CAD. What kind of fines did Moonbeam come up with for illegal airbnb’s?
A whopping $1000?
Moonbeam and his crew have also given airbnb hosts until August 31 to obtain the required business license.
How convenient, the end of the summer tourist season.
http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/airbnb-vancouver-rentals-agreement-2018
Very bad indeed.
Toronto foreign-buyer home sales drop to 2.5 per cent of real-estate purchases
The number of homes sold to foreign buyers in Toronto has dropped steadily over the year since the province introduced a 15-per-cent tax on such purchases, falling from 7.2 per cent of sales in May, 2017, to 2.5 per cent over a three-month period ending in February.
New data from the province’s Finance Ministry show the continuing fall in foreign purchases as house prices in Toronto’s once red-hot housing market have stabilized after a sharp decline that began last April when Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government introduced a foreign-buyers tax as part of a package of housing measures called the Fair Housing Plan.
Taxes work. If you hit their wallets, they will stop speculating. As simple as that.
Of course, freeloaders love taxes.
Freeloaders also love evading taxes… like your shadow flipper allies.
How’s diapers gig going on? Too many walks down to mama’s bunker?
Are you suggesting we should ignore the fact that housing investors are breaking laws and evading taxes?
keep raising the tax until the foreign buyers are 0.0 per cent.
More garbage from Geller:
Red tape remains a major culprit in Vancouver’s skyrocketing real estate
The ideas that guy promotes are fucking toxic. He also thinks that enforcing the law will raise prices… What a dirtbag. http://news.buzzbuzzhome.com/2018/04/tax-evasion-bcs-pre-sale-condo-hamper-supply.html Side note: He’s arguing that rules (you know, accountability) are the problem in one article, and that supply is the issue in the other – as in clamping down on tax evasion will reduce investment -> construction ->supply. From the Vancourier article: ” Increasingly we are told there is an imbalance between supply and demand. However, more supply on its own does not appear to be the answer. One only needs to look at the record number of condos under construction without any apparent price reductions. My colleagues in the development community believe a major problem has been the complex and time-consuming approval system.” From BuzzBuzz: “However, if investors are taken out of the market, Geller says some… Read more »
This sentence says it all:
“My colleagues in the development community believe a major problem has been the complex and time-consuming approval system.”
developers want more business? Shocking, Geller, really shocking. I feel your outrage……
Keep adding taxes on taxes … and voila… problem solved, right bears!
Taxes are not the issue here. Prices are the problem. Without lower prices, Vancouver will become a resort for millionaire migrants. Taxes serve an ancillary role: they dissuade millionaires from parking their money in Vancouver real estate.
So, yes. Bring on the taxes. Even if I have to pay some of them, I will still be better off if and when the millionaires retreat.
Envy, laziness, entitlement and jealousy are the problem… with bears.
Self-centredness, greed, arrogance, and no sense of morals are just the tip of the iceberg for you. Did you sign and submit your tax forms? Lying on them is a problem – even more so now.
Bottom line is we all get to decide what kind of a city/province we want to live in, and our vote reflects that….and if the majority want the sae thing it generally happens. So you can call it jealousy and entitled, but I’ll call it democracy.
It’s you that seems entitled, believing you have a right to never ending double digit price increases in real estate.
No. Pay the taxes owed and don’t hide from them you crook-supporting douche….
Why not? It worked with cigarettes.
From April 2015 to December 2017, the CRA audited 4,951 files in British Columbia and assessed $140.0 million as a result of these audits.
The penalties for non-compliance are harsh. “The CRA will apply a penalty equal to 50% of the additional tax payable if a taxpayer knowingly makes a false statement when filing a return,” the CRA says. “During the period of April 2015 to December 2017, the CRA applied 1,254 penalties, totaling $38.6 million. The highest penalty was almost $2.5 million.”
https://thinkpol.ca/2018/04/28/flipping-houses-condos-cra-reminds-profits-fully-taxable/
“Earnings from “shadow flipping,” where a speculator buys a property and then, for a profit, assign the right-to-sell clause that is in the contract to another speculator or the final buyer”, are also fully taxable, according the tax agency.
The CRA is emphasizing that “the principal residence exemption does not apply to property flipping” and “these transactions may also be subject to GST/HST which you would be responsible for remitting to the CRA.”
““The CRA acquires and analyzes third-party data and has found that some flips are not being reported or are being reported incorrectly,” the taxman says. “The profits from flipping real estate are generally considered to be fully taxable as business income.” And you don’t get a free pass for being a non-resident. Irrespective of your citizenship and residency status, you must report and pay taxes for profits made from flipping property, the CRA says. “A non-resident who invests in property in Canada is liable to pay tax on gains that arise from the sale of that property and is generally not eligible for the principal residence exemption,” according to the tax agency[2]. “There are rules[3] related to the disposition or acquisition of certain Canadian property that require non-residents who sell Canadian property to notify the CRA and to pay an… Read more »
Just a reminder to all those who try to strike it rich this way: ignorance is no excuse when it comes to taxes. Cannot claim you did not know.
Yeah, ironically they’d probably be in a better position if they filed taxes properly and just refused to pay them. It’s the difference between committing a crime, and just being a deadbeat and not wanting to pay your taxes.
1595 E 20TH AVENUE
$949,000
MLS® Number: R2231782
Assessed: $1,232,200
Let’s see what it actually sells for because I know the practice of drawing people in with a very low sticker price is still going on here. Wouldn’t surprise me if these guys would not accept anything less than 1.1. Another word for this is lying but then again these are realtors.
The place is a shack. I think it would not be a nice place to live in unless you can fix it a bit. I cannot imagine people willing to move their families in there for multiple years.
One million for that thing can only be spent if your objective is to resell it within a short amount of time. That is called speculation.
Who knows maybe their price really is a hair under a million for a decrepit shithole. Hilarious how that might be considered a good deal in this city overflowing with foreign wealth.
Another tiny lot, it’s not underpriced even in today’s market.
Three months from now it’ll look overpriced.
3948 NOOTKA STREET
$998,888
MLS® Number: R2257460
Assessment: $1,196,500
For those that think there are many empty homes out there and people are lying: 1) First StatsCan changed the definition empty homes; theyvsaid it was emptynifnoccupied by a temp immigrant such as a foreign student. There are 10’s of thousands in Vancouver proper alone and many have homes bought for them by parents. 2) most of these students have no siblings (China one child policy) and live alone. They don’t spend much time at home or cook. They ‘study’ maybe once a week as the schools are visa mills. Thus the houses look as though they are empty. They are not. That’s why snow and newspapers remain. 3) I hear from sources that the Government is set to announce a work permit exemption for the spec tax. All foreign students would qualify. All post secondary schools including ubc are… Read more »
Why do you care? If I’m out there looking for empty homes that only my problem.
Metro Vancouver housing market still ‘vulnerable’ – for eighth straight quarter
“Demand and supply fundamental factors such as population, income, financing costs and land supply cannot account for the current price levels.”
“The only area where the risk was seen as low in Metro Vancouver was overbuilding. “Despite record-breaking new home construction over the past two years, new home inventories remain low as developers have not been able to keep up with the demand,” said the report.”
“Demand and supply fundamental factors such as population, income, financing costs and land supply cannot account for the current price levels.””
Sure they account for prices. Just not local incomes. Rather the astronomical overseas incomes of people who we allow to move here in the hundreds of thousands per year. The wealthier the better. #WelcomeToCanada
As the BC Libs never forget to remind us: it is good for the economy…
Didn’t Michael Geller just claim on Twitter that we should not enforce our money laundering laws because we risk jeopardizing investment from Asia? People have lost all shame.
This is about money, not race.
Owen Bigland’s recent YOUTUBE video submits the BC NDP gov’t may change the laws so that every strata has to have a certain % of rentals.
His view is that is a good idea, as having rentals increases the value of the strata (….aka attracts more investors hence higher prices. )
OPINION
Why did mortgage rates just surge?
Opinion: The mystery behind TD’s surprise mortgage rate hike—and what it means for consumers
By Rob M Lister
http://www.macleans.ca/opinion/why-did-mortgage-rates-just-surge/
“If the qualifying rate does jump in the next week or two, peoples’ buying power will drop anywhere from 1 to 3 per cent (depending on how high it goes).
That, coupled with rising debt servicing costs and housing tax measures in B.C. and Ontario, adds more negative psychology for a detached house market that’s already softening.”
This is for those that can’t shop around for mortgage rates at rental time.
How do they no you can’t? If your dumb enough to do your banking at the same bank you have your mortgage. They know what you earn.
It’s not necessarily a question of being too dumb to go to another bank. If you are just another “keeping up with the jones” kinda person, using your heloc to finance a lifestyle that you can’t otherwise afford, then you will be among a large contingent of consumers looking to “refinance” their mortgage. Ding, ding, ding …. OSFI B20.
If you are with one bank but are looking for a different mortgage at another bank … ding, ding, ding …. OSFI B20.
If you have a Collateral mortgage … everyone at TDBank does … whether they know it or not, you could be stuck there for a long time.