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?

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.

They’ll pay salaries which allow people to live here. So that puts additional upward pressure on rents.

Amazon management did not read this blog. Workers leave this town in drove lol, and they are setting up new shop here! What gives?

USA no renwing many H1B Visas so those workers will move here as TFWs and IMPs.

“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.”

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.”

Thanks partly to the NDP!

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.

Our whistler rental 2 bedroom condo was assessed at $723,000 last year and it sold this march for $1,250,000

Maybe Whistler Or Bust blames foreigners for making him buy at close to the market peak?

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!

“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.”

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.”

““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 »

If you know for sure, why don’t you snitch ?

Taxes work. If you hit their wallets, they will stop speculating. As simple as that.

keep raising the tax until the foreign buyers are 0.0 per cent.

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……

“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.

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 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

“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.