Vancouver’s ‘most haunted house’ is getting an upgrade:
A legendary home often dubbed “Vancouver’s most haunted house,” on a property rumoured to be an Indigenous burial ground, is the subject of a rezoning application for a new condo building.
Pennyfarthing Development, the developer of a number of high-end condos along the Cambie Corridor, is applying for rezoning on the site, which is diagonally opposite the King Edward Canada Line station.
Read the full article here.
[…] –2018 trend: up […]
The B.C. government is ruling out any change to a tax on high-value homes that has prompted protests in the Vancouver region.
Sage Aaron, director of communications for Premier John Horgan, said in an interview on Thursday that legislation enacting the tax has been passed, and the government is committed to following through with a policy that she called “the right thing to do.”
but maybe we will see changes to exemptions that apply to the tax as people come out of the woodwork. it always amazes me how determined and creative people can get when they have reason to be
“but maybe we will see changes to exemptions that apply to the tax”
Not sure what you mean, there are no exemptions to the tax (and note the legislation has already been passed). Face it, the NDP has already lost the votes of these protestors (and I doubt many of them voted NDP in the first place) so there’s nothing in it for them by backing down.
You could have said the same thing about the spec tax. They backed off that one pretty quickly.
so far there have been numerous examples of rules being “tweeked” to appease certain interest groups after what amounted to nothing more than routine complaints. i fully expect the same to occur here. sure, i don’t know exactly how this will play out, but people are sure speaking out. these same folks have proven time and time again to be very clever, resourceful and strategic at how their message gets spun and what kind of political damage it could potentially do.
Because it is the right thing to do. Everybody knows that, even the shameful protesters.
Shame on the NDP stealing money from the people. Keep watching…it’s not over yet.
The only way to scrap the surtax over 3 million of value is to re-elect the BC Libs. They committed to scrap it.
Wilkinson has said so just a few days ago.
Vote for them at your own risk. The BC Libs are the party of Chinese millionaire migrants.
Oh hopeless stupidity, once prices come down they won’t pay tax any longer. Apparently idiot like you thinks that house in range of few M$ are normal and perhaps should be subsidized, fucking freeloader. School tax is quite small and should be much hire and enforced to the bone regardless owner is old teacher or corrupted astronaut.
Typo, hire – higher. Much higher…
As we all know increasing supply is useless when developers are selling the units overseas. Similarly, This tax in order to have any bite must force people to sell their homes if they can’t pay. It’s ridiculous how little property tax we pay here. In San Francisco, another similar city with housing issues, property tax is like 1% of assessed. 10k on a million dollar home. How many millenials who had help from mom and dad could afford another 800 dollars plus more per month on property tax? No more of deferring this tax until you die. If you can’t afford to pay it, the province puts a lien on your house, and forces you to sell and move. This will put more downward pressure on prices. Absolutely ridiculous
This is so typically Canadian too. The problem with us is that we want to have our cake and eat it too. It is impossible to solve the housing problem by not crashing the market. We want to please the housing advocates but we also want to please the rich multimillion dollar home owner who balks at paying several thousand more dollars in tax a year. We complain about foreign investors yet want more immigration. It’s the same old swan song day after day. You’re gonna piss somebody off. If you wanna take care of Canadians and want a more equitable society then you will need to crash the market. There is no other way.
An Alberta businessman who has quietly been teeing up hundreds of millions of dollars in deals for Chinese investors to buy oilpatch assets is the first person known to be targeted by the Canada Revenue Agency’s criminal investigations into the Panama Papers, court records reveal.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cra-panama-papers-raids-wentao-yang-1.4647879
“Wentao Yang’s million-dollar Calgary home, a West Vancouver mansion used by him and his wife, and their accountant’s office north of Toronto were the targets of headline-grabbing CRA raids last Valentine’s Day, as agents sought evidence of tax evasion by Yang through a thicket of offshore companies he is involved in.”
“”This investigation is one of the 42 international/offshore tax evasion cases that CRA is currently investigating which involve complex structures and potentially multimillion dollars in taxes evaded, which is consistent with our priority of focusing on sophisticated and well-organized tax evasion schemes,” Jeremy Ghio, the revenue minister’s press secretary, said in an email Thursday afternoon.”
Make sure everyone votes YES to PR. 5 months to go until the big vote.
Then maybe we can have a people’s party and enact real lasting change that puts citizens first!!
I’m sure a new party would easily get 30% of the vote in a heartbeat.
Please write Eby and Davidoff to tell them we got their backs.
Also make it known on twitter. Tell the assholes out there that we hit harder. And it will get harder. Fuckers.
“Where is Eby” Video
LOL
https://globalnews.ca/news/4186361/thomas-davidoff-ubc-protesters-shaughnessy/
“Housing advocate Justin Fung said the idea of silencing the voices of academics in the conversation about housing is disconcerting.
“I don’t always agree with Tom, to be honest. But I’m happy that he’s out there,” he said.
Fung has debated Davidoff on Twitter and he said the discourse has always been healthy. He said silencing voices like Davidoff’s will do more harm than good.
“I think it makes for a better society, I think it makes for more informed decision making and in the absence of that, we lose a lot,” he said.“
Gotta love Justin Fung! And of course good old Tom Davidoff.
The rich entitled homeowners are sinking deeper into the whole they are digging….
I cannot believe those rich entitled buggers complaining about paying more in tax when their underlying asset has increased 400 percent in a decade.
They need to be taught a financial lesson. Make the school tax payable every year.
Fuck the deferring.
The B.C. government is ruling out any change to a tax on high-value homes that has prompted protests in the Vancouver region
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-bc-rules-out-changes-to-tax-on-high-value-homes-amid-escalating/
Quick Pass Master Tutorial School Ltd., a company that offers real estate-related tutorial programs to help Mandarin-speaking people planning to take B.C.’s real estate licensing exams, sued Richard Zhao, a former teacher with them, after he terminated his contract with them and set up a new school
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/judge-orders-injunction-against-owner-of-new-real-estate-school
>>> a whole buffet of themes here…plenty of fun for all!
Yet More crooks tying up the court system.
you mean game the system…
Why are there so many new listings in Surrey this week?
Whoracle? Are your fake Indian relatives cashing out?
That’s awesome. Can you post data like PaulB for the valley?
Btw names on the internet don’t hurt me. Think how boring it would be if I didn’t create some controversy here.
Where is Horgan and James ??? Why aren’t they defending EBy??
They need to come out and say bold action will be taken on housing and his school tax is a start.
Fucking cowards need to step up. Or shut up.
Carole James was on the CBC On the Coast this evening. perhaps you can listen to the podcast.
She said it clearly and unambiguously: there is not going to be any changes to the additional school tax for spoiled millionaires.
By the way, after the theatrics of the past few days I am confident of one thing: if an election was held tomorrow, the NDP would clear the house. The silent majority supports these measures. And David Eby would get a plebiscite. Not a single one of those protesters voted for him last May, not one. But everyone else will be supporting him.
Semi-current polling has them pretty close and I believe another more recent one had the BCLibs slightly ahead.
I suppose this is good news. Remember the polls last May. NDP was way down at the end. In fact, it got fewer seats than the BC Libs in the election.
Check again in the next few months: if house prices go start to go down, they will gain incrementally.
The red flag for the NDP in the recent mainstreet poll is that the BCLIBS have a slight lead greater van. The NDs need greater Van in order to win.
Again, check the polls from last May. Nothing much changed.
The people protesting the housing taxes did not vote NDP. Those who voted for them are happy the6 took action.
Keep in mind that proportional representation would wipe out the BC Libs.
Those protestors who paid for professionally printed signs and expensive, wood-framed lawn signs didn’t vote NDP?! 😉
PR would wipe out a lot of problems. Fingers crossed.
And create many more. PR would be a disaster.
This blog is populated by jealous whiners who expect the NDP to solve all their problems. Why don’t you ask the NDP to institute a 100% tax on earnings over $500K and give it all you guys?
Nope. I’m voting PR.
You will then quickly see the rise of a nationalist party.
Finally a genuine explanation for all your bleating about PR.
Wealth and real estate taxes needed to be upped tremendously.
Income taxes need to go down.
Actually, the guys who want higher taxes on labor income are the homeowners.
Mr Rubinstein of Shayghnessy made it clear: raise taxes from high earners, not from homeowners.
By supporting the BC Libs you will support high tax on income, low tax on property. Wilkinson has stateD clearly that homes are a sacred cow.
We need to shuffle taxes away from income and towards houses. Especially the mansion kind.
Why are you so jealous? “Spoiled Millionaires” you say? Why are they spoiled? They pay property taxes. Just because they were fortunate to own an asset that appreciated and you don’t? Why should they be singled out for extra taxation based on the value of the property? The NDP should balance the budget.
Same old NDP. No end to the taxes. They just don’t learn. This will end badly for them.
Wealth needs to be taxed. That’s why!!!
I’m sick and tired of income being taxed at a much higher rate than wealth and wealth accumulation!!
And we have a majority bitch!
Even after the extra tax, property taxes will be way lower than the rate paid in mist US cities.
These homeo2ners have rigged the system to their advantage over the past decades. Now that the scam is being revealed, they scream and kick. But there is no support for them in society at large.
The silent majority is with the NDP on this issue.
Eby’s ‘security concerns’ are an insult to his constituents
Gutless. That seems to be the prevailing public sentiment concerning Vancouver-Point Grey MLA David Eby and his decision to cancel a public meeting
The backlash continues.
I also noticed that a full blown character assassination is in the process.
Eby has got too close to the entrenched privilege in the city of Vancouver, and he is getting hit from multiple sides.
You gotta love David Eby! Nobody has quite done what he dared to do, and look at the backlash!
Wow. Having Gordon Clark against you should be a mark of honor. Thanks for sharing!
Gordon Clark, greedy home owning boomer.
He’s written a lot of articles in the past intended to “protect his equity”, and has played the race card liberally.
Does he advocate for the sweaty, red-faced, wheezing, winded folk? (Can’t see what other race he’d be advocating for…)
He’s part of the “greedy fat fuck” demographic who had it good back in the 70’s, and he defends the money laundering chinese with the usual shrieks of “racism” and “xenophobia”.
Nobody will miss him when he expires.
I don’t get it. Aren’t there genuine concerns if 20,000 people show up to a venue capable of safely holding 200?
But when we see such a piece penned by Douglas Todd (which we surely will, as it clearly fits the Postmedia narrative) I imagine Just Me will implode in a puff of nonsense and clowns. I’d pay for a ticket to that.
Your point was lost in your convoluted dialectic.
In any event…..you gotta love David Eby! The guy is the best politicians of the last 30 years in BC and probably Canada.
From activist to Artful Dodger, Eby defends dysfunctional status quo
A once-celebrated activist speaking truth to power, since taking office B.C. Attorney-General David Eby has performed more like the Artful Dodger, tap-dancing around the dysfunctional status quo. His tactic is to concede there’s a problem, insist he’s working on it, and plead that it just takes time…As for money laundering and the absence of a single conviction…
Fake news media had a meeting, they want to get rid of Eby to protect their hard earned equity.
Douglas Todd is now fake news, you say?
Its easy to be in the opposition. The longer the G-NDP is in power the harder it will be for them to blame everything on the Liberals.
Mike Smyth: What happened to David Eby, the guy who never backed down from a fight?
I suspect Eby is worried about the local politics of this one, as the tax disproportionally hits voters in his own riding. Now he has fallen short of the standard of accountability that he himself demanded back when he was B.C.’s most vocal political agitator.
Perhaps you could throw in some articles by Stephen Harper, Christy Clark, and Gordon Campbell while you’re at it? (You know, for balance…)
Refresh my memory please. Who was doing the Realtor starvation index and where are we with that now?
New
213
Price Change
65
Sold
103
TI:10503
Thanks Paul. Just barely over 100 sales in may. Nice.
40 extra listing per day should take us to 11k by mid may or so.
Most worrisome: Eby bought a house after being elected. Why would he do that unless he knew he would water down the housing promises?
Can someone answer me that?
It could be hard to understand it in Vancouver but perhaps he needed a place to live?
Eby bought a (smallish) apartment in Victoria after realizing that he would spend a hell of a lot of time there, being AG.
Our elected officials get help to buy through their relocation packages. He did not buy a house, he bought a small apartment. It makes total sense, I would have done the same.
If I were you I would:
1) stop spreading misinformation;
2) spend most of my efforts focusing on the multimillionaires living on the west side, who are violently attacking Eby, Davidoff and whoever else tries to introduce a modicum of reform in our corrupt housing market.
Genuine violence is being directed to Eby and whoever else gets in the way of the multi-million dollars being made in RE.
Fair enough. You sure it’s not a detached home?
Link?
Boracle why do you ask for a link which you never supply in your own posts?
You think he’ll claim he lives there for 182 days a year or 183?
Why don’t you ask him. Not everyone is trying to evade and avoid taxes, some people are actually honest. I know that might sound strange to you, but it is actually true.
We need more policy from NDP.
Flipping tax (investment property sold within 1.5 years)
hoarding annual real estate tax (multiple properties), 4 properties and you owe 5%.
ban corps from owning unless identity
Renters tax credit plus CRA linked registry to out landlords not declaring rental income and cap gains
They fucked up the “speculation tax”, remember?
School tax upset doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny. https://doodles.mountainmath.ca/blog/2018/05/01/a-modest-school-tax-proposal/ The quick version: “If you don’t want to pay the extra school tax, how about partnering up with someone who will pay the extra school tax for you for the next 10 years in exchange for the past 10 years of inflation-adjusted land value gains? If you are over the age of 55 there is of course also the option of simply deferring your taxes. At 1.2% simple interest. Which sounds like a deal too good to be true. Yet it is. Not over 55? You can still get a similar deal as a family with children, at a somewhat higher interest rate of 3.2%. Don’t qualify for that either? Try the hardship program! That won’t work for you either? You can leverage some of those past value gains by… Read more »
Great article by Jens von Bergmann.
Strongly recommended read!
The way West Side millionaires are harassing Tom Davidoff is truly shameful. Apparently, these losers have been putting signage outside his home, disturbing his privacy and his family’s privacy.
This gives you an idea how far vested interests and real estate agents are ready to go in order to stop any free discussion of the root causes of our real estate crisis. And how much they oppose the very important changes introduced by the NDP.
Anyone considering to vote for Andrew Wilkinson next round should think really hard about what we are witnessing. There is a degree of violence in the way David Eby’s office has been attacked and how Davidoff is being targeted.
Protesters are behaving with sheer violence.
Then why don’t those that want bold housing action do similar actions?
Because they will be targeted by the real estate developer cartel.
Be careful folks. Especially those on this site.
David Eby should get 24/7 armed protection, bodyguards, as housing shitshow escalates.
Yes.
Hopefully the police forces haven’t been paid off.
No kidding. This stuff is getting out of hand. His constituency office is being visited by fairly aggressive characters, who scream and then run away.
I wonder if the library lady kicker is offering his services as a mercenary?
Did any of these greedy boomer geezers/media hacks leave a flaming bag of poo in front of his office?
I would do security there for free, people will get hurt.
It’d be a pretty long commute for you, but you do have the time on your hands.
you mean kick and scream, then run away…
We’re going to need camps for hostile boomers as well.
Like Just Me?
I am told these numbers are horrifically bad:
“2400 new multi-family completions coming on market this month (incl 7 high rise towers) , last month saw only a 40% absorption rate with 900 coming on…holy hell …this is tragic, developers must be shitting their pants.”
Is that LM Vancouver or else? I noticed huge highrises the other day when I went to West Burnaby. It looked like SF movie, Blade Runner and such.
Metrotown area has six massive highrises under construction in addition to the new ones already completed. And there are another three waiting for approval from Burnaby City council. Also where the old Sears store is there will also probably be a high rise condo there as well.
This was Brentwood Town Centre just checked the map where I was. It was huge, scary huge like a small island full of colossal skyscrapers but nothing else.
Speaking of “massive highrises” they are certainly massive but condos are small, ridiculously small. I don’t know how they even qualify as livable spaces. The trend over all these years of housing craziness was to constantly reduce square footage in favor of the number of units, resulting in a shitty product that many bought through their noses. Probably it will go to the history of a “selling” real estate as one of the best-executed swindles of all times.
A good example of how those 1BR and 2 BR storages (a.ka. condos) sizes in “modern, luxurious buildings” is a new rental building at Pendrell – floorplans.
They are not intended to be lived in. They are for speculating and flipping only.
1 bedroom at 403 SQFT
2 bedroom at 650 SQFT
Penthouses for millionaires at 1500SQFT
Anybody worried about “square footage inequality”?
Isn’t it time the city starts to mandate minimum square footage?
The city has already helped finance 320sqft suites.
So now you know what they think is a livable amount of space.
Pretty much anything under construction is already sold.
Doesn’t it have to be near 80% sold before shovels hit he ground? (or something high like that?)
Exactly. 70% to get Canadian financing.
So chances are if it’s already a highrise it’s about 2-3 years since it was 70% sold.
But you can’t really expect anybody here to know anything about real estate. That’s not their thing.
Realtors will continue to lie and say the market is hot when it’s clearly dying. The last of the greater fools are piling in now. The greatest Ponzi scheme in the world is collapsing.
Perhaps time for the gold to go up, just kidding.
Let’s hope you’re right. We need a policy straw that breaks the camels back.
And here comes the BMO, not much but some…
You can’t get a 5yr fixed under 3% today, according to ratehub. Two weeks ago you could.
Irrespective of measures taken locally, provincially, and federally, this trend is probably the single biggest factor in putting downward pressure on pricing. The rest pales in comparison…. not to discount the power of perception – ill-founded as it may be.
Quite. Increased rates will impact existing owners when they renew in the future and might pressure a few into listing, but they impact current buyers/sellers (and the stats) today.
We need more policy from NDP.
Flipping tax (investment property sold within 1.5 years)
hoarding annual real estate tax (multiple properties), 4 properties and you owe 5%.
ban corps from owning unless identity
Renters tax credit plus CRA linked registry to out landlords not declaring rental income and cap gains
It’s not Teranet, but it’s an indicator. https://thinkpol.ca/2018/05/03/vancouver-houses-sold-assessment-april/
“Most Vancouver houses sold below assessment in April”
The selection of John Ahern as a ‘financial crime special adviser’ comes at a time of heightened concern that illicit money is being funnelled through the province’s casinos http://vancouversun.com/news/canada/a-special-adviser-will-help-rcmp-tackle-b-c-s-infamous-industry-money-laundering/wcm/b24a9972-75b8-450f-9557-56373510e9bb The special adviser will be expected to give advice to investigators, review case files, serve as an expert witness in court, assist in the preparation of search warrants, and provide training on financial crime topics, according to details posted on the federal government’s tendering website. The one-year, $217,000 contract could be extended for up to four years. Though members of the public still have a couple of weeks to submit their names for the job, the public notice states that Ahern, who is a former RCMP member and spent years prosecuting serious financial crimes, “is believed to be the only known consultant capable of performing the duties outlined” and the government… Read more »
He’s a dedicated public servant who values important things. Next time folks feel compelled to disparage “snivel servant swine”, consider this individual and his sacrifice of more lucrative opportunities for this one vital public interest. Respect to citizen Ahern.
The end of the article is very worrying. We need to change the system asap. “But Eby testified that he is concerned the reports FINTRAC sends to police or the Canada Revenue Agency for follow-up investigation end up “gathering dust,” as there have been so few prosecutions. “FINTRAC does a very good job of collecting reports and entering them into a database that’s available to law enforcement. However, FINTRAC, the RCMP and Revenue Canada need the resources to follow up on these reports. There is no question there has been a massive failure here,” Eby said in his statement to the Post. People naturally ask: where’s the money coming from? A FINTRAC spokeswoman said this week the agency has seen a 180 per cent increase in suspicious transaction reporting from the real estate sector and a 127 per cent increase… Read more »
The explanation for the increased reportage is likely twofold: 1) honourable people want to see an end to the bullshit and feel that their time is not going to be wasted in reporting the problems and 2) folks want to separate themselves from the spray for when the shit hits the fan – they’re covering heir own asses by throwing others under the bus.
The northeastern border city of Dandong — the main artery for China’s trade with North Korea — has been in the doldrums since the United Nations punished Pyongyang for its nuclear and long-range missile tests last year. But property prices in the city surged in the weeks leading up to the historic summit between the two Koreas, with speculators snapping up homes expecting prices to rise further…
http://www.richmond-news.com/news/asia-pacific-business/property-boom-in-china-border-town-as-world-warms-to-n-korea-1.23289588
Strange, the chinese aren’t really known for speculating.
More chinese fraud.