The Decline of Vancouver.

situation is fucked up.

my sister is a dept head at U of S her husband is a big deal at price waterhouse. they make great money. they can't afford to buy in vancouver.

i don't know who will be living in van eventually. i guess there will be a lot of bridge and tunnel crowd commuting.

on the plus side ssc property prices have truly exploded. on the neg side … traffic and townies..

You mean buy a house in Van? Living in a townhouse isn't the end of the world, although my co workers who spend three hours behind the wheel a day think its worth it to have a house they spend little time in. The traffic coming off the shore in the morning and home at the end of the day keeps dwindling by the week. I wonder what percentage of the area actually go to work over the bridges these days? Seems pretty low.

You mean buy a house in Van? Living in a townhouse isn't the end of the world, although my co workers who spend three hours behind the wheel a day think its worth it to have a house they spend little time in. The traffic coming off the shore in the morning and home at the end of the day keeps dwindling by the week. I wonder what percentage of the area actually go to work over the bridges these days? Seems pretty low.

Townhouses are pretty freaking expensive on the north shore. They are what houses were 4 years ago.

Companies are able to save on RE by letting people work from wherever they want, so people aren't going across the bridges into work, they don't need to live in Vancouver or even the GVRD, in some cases they can live anywhere

situation is fucked up.

my sister is a dept head at U of S her husband is a big deal at price waterhouse. they make great money. they can't afford to buy in vancouver.

i don't know who will be living in van eventually. i guess there will be a lot of bridge and tunnel crowd commuting.

on the plus side ssc property prices have truly exploded. on the neg side … traffic and townies..

"Affordability" is a pretty loose term… You can definitely afford an older 2 bedroom condo and live in it with dual income. Even in HK or any major cities, most families live in Condos.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/working-immigrants-foreign-tax-1.3698362

[HTML_REMOVED]esarc[HTML_REMOVED]. Wait a minute, wasn't this tax just meant to keep out the rich chinese??

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/working-immigrants-foreign-tax-1.3698362

[HTML_REMOVED]esarc[HTML_REMOVED]. Wait a minute, wasn't this tax just meant to keep out the rich chinese??

I don't see the problem here. If he wants to live and work here permanently, apply for permanent residence, then buy house/condo, no?

I don't see the problem here. If he wants to live and work here permanently, apply for permanent residence, then buy house/condo, no?

exactly.. if your not a resident you shouldnt be bitchin you have no rights…

go throu the channels become a legal resident then and only then do you have a leg to stand on to bitch about RE here…

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/working-immigrants-foreign-tax-1.3698362

[HTML_REMOVED]esarc[HTML_REMOVED]. Wait a minute, wasn't this tax just meant to keep out the rich chinese??

It shouldn't apply to existing contacts.

I don't see the problem here. If he wants to live and work here permanently, apply for permanent residence, then buy house/condo, no?

the guy in the article is in a different situation than the scenario this tax is, or really should be, aimed at. he's been here two years, working and contributing to this economy. the tax could have been implemented in a way that takes that into account.

This whole 15% property transfer tax seems to be a complete frenzy and probably didn't even have much thought into it before implemented in an attempt to cool down the housing market.

Regarding to people holding current pre-sale contracts (myself included), I think the RE market here in Vancouver has dug a hole too deep to recover. There is no complete fix to the problem, just mitigation.

Remember that movie, the Imitation game where they had to sacrifice the lives of crew members on the battle field to win the war? Kinda like what's going on here… Some people will have to be screwed in order to save/mitigate the problem in the GRAND scheme of things…

the guy in the article is in a different situation than the scenario this tax is, or really should be, aimed at. he's been here two years, working and contributing to this economy. the tax could have been implemented in a way that takes that into account.

I dunno. The more caveats you add to take into account possible valid exceptions, the more loopholes you leave for people to exploit in the name of their own self-interests. If this guy isn't pursuing permanent residency, he is indicating he has no intention of remaining here, and continuing to contribute to the local economy, pay local taxes etc. Until he makes that commitment, pay the tax, or rent.

I dunno. The more caveats you add to take into account possible valid exceptions, the more loopholes you leave for people to exploit in the name of their own self-interests. If this guy isn't pursuing permanent residency, he is indicating he has no intention of remaining here, and continuing to contribute to the local economy, pay local taxes etc. Until he makes that commitment, pay the tax, or rent.

Yup, it's unfortunate indeed, and I feel for him. But this is just the name of the game. People need to realize the possible implications and risks of foreign property ownership. It's a tough lesson, but this is a reminder that we should all "take matters into our own hands". This should also apply to permanent residents as well…

I dunno. The more caveats you add to take into account possible valid exceptions, the more loopholes you leave for people to exploit in the name of their own self-interests. If this guy isn't pursuing permanent residency, he is indicating he has no intention of remaining here, and continuing to contribute to the local economy, pay local taxes etc. Until he makes that commitment, pay the tax, or rent.

the article states that he is persuing permanent residencey, but is waiting for the application to work it's way through the system. a simple solution would have been like the realtor in the same article suggested, any deals that have been signed and a deposit paid are not subject to the tax on closing but any new deals are, starting now.

i think the tax is a good idea, but the implementation is flawed and of course it's coming way too late. it's a knee jerk reaction by the govt to try an appease the public because there is an election on the horizon.