The Decline of Vancouver.

LOL, that didnt take long for her to back pedal..

this place is truely well and royally fucked.

She needed to find a way to help her developer friends out. There are a ton of empty lots sitting idle in North Van right now. The developers bought at the height of the real estate hysteria and now that prices have softened they are on the hook unless prices rebound.

So we are going back to students and housewives buying $10M houses. Only now they need a part time job at Starbucks. :lol:

So we are going back to students and housewives buying $10M houses. Only now they need a part time job at Starbucks. :lol:

Come on man, give them some fucking credit. They implemented policy that may or may not have negatively impacted their political donors for at least six months.

It's a huge win-win for BC.

Ugh. The G[HTML_REMOVED]M article suggests Christy is pitching this as the humane thing to do in light of Donald Trump's actions South of the border. Give me a break. She's been looking for an excuse to do this since it looked like the foreign buyers tax might actually have a slight effect on the market.

I need to stop reading the news in the morning. It only makes me angry at the moment.

I need to stop reading the news in the morning. It only makes me angry at the moment.

Don't read it before bed, it just makes you toss and turn most of the night.

I need to stop reading the news in the morning. It only makes me angry at the moment.

that's what most do, it's too much, depressing, feel like they cant do anything… so they just ignore what's going on and give up. That's how they get away with the shit they do. What's that saying? complacency kills

If you want to move to a new country you HAVE to buy real estate.

Was it Denmark or some country that you need to be a taxpayer for 3 years before being eligible to buy RE.

If you want to move to a new country you HAVE to buy real estate.

Was it Denmark or some country that you need to be a taxpayer for 3 years before being eligible to buy RE.

Yeah I always find this funny - like the news will feature a young family trying to buy a house but cant afford to because of the foreign buyers tax and they act like they are going to be homeless or something as if home ownership is the only option…

Yeah I always find this funny - like the news will feature a young family trying to buy a house but cant afford to because of the foreign buyers tax and they act like they are going to be homeless or something as if home ownership is the only option…

That mentality combined with historically low interest rates is why we have the market we do. It's hilarious how young Canadians/families (late 20's, early 30's) think it is their right to own a detached home in Toronto/Vancouver. These are the people going absolutely balls to the wall on leverage and the ones who will get wiped out by a modest correction.

On a related note.

Holy supply. :eek2:

Not usually one to quote the Tyee..but this is pretty straight-forward:

"Whether we like it or not, B.C. has basically become a real estate economy. The BC Assessment office recently released numbers for 2017 showing that property values ballooned by a staggering $332 billion — 25 per cent — last year. This figure is more than five times the economic value of all goods-producing industries in 2015 combined and nearly double the size of our entire service sector that same year."

I know assessed values aren't same a GDP values…but the incentive is clear and are the winners and losers when this sector dominates.

The newest census makes clear that our population growth is a) heavily reliant on immigration, b) focused on urban centres, and c) that Vancouver has the highest population density. The people are coming, they want to live in cities but there's a catch:

1) we've got massive, non-land costs for building that kept outpacing inflation and wage growth

2) Our property tax rate is low.

3) our land values growth is driving up cost

4) we don't have a big freeway or extra transit capacity and are otherwise constrained by the mountains and water. So land supply is limited and gov't isn't budging on this - this isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is tied to #2 above.

I feel like we have to say to all 3 levels of gov't: pick one or two from the above list and tell us your plan.

The writing is on the wall that this is the top election issue for NDP…but so much of #1-4 is reliant on local gov't.

Not usually one to quote the Tyee..but this is pretty straight-forward:

"Whether we like it or not, B.C. has basically become a real estate economy. The BC Assessment office recently released numbers for 2017 showing that property values ballooned by a staggering $332 billion — 25 per cent — last year. This figure is more than five times the economic value of all goods-producing industries in 2015 combined and nearly double the size of our entire service sector that same year."

I know assessed values aren't same a GDP values…but the incentive is clear and are the winners and losers when this sector dominates.

The newest census makes clear that our population growth is a) heavily reliant on immigration, b) focused on urban centres, and c) that Vancouver has the highest population density. The people are coming, they want to live in cities but there's a catch:

1) we've got massive, non-land costs for building that kept outpacing inflation and wage growth

2) Our property tax rate is low.

3) our land values growth is driving up cost

4) we don't have a big freeway or extra transit capacity and are otherwise constrained by the mountains and water. So land supply is limited and gov't isn't budging on this - this isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is tied to #2 above.

I feel like we have to say to all 3 levels of gov't: pick one or two from the above list and tell us your plan.

The writing is on the wall that this is the top election issue for NDP…but so much of #1-4 is reliant on local gov't.

Agreed.

This place will forever remain unaffordable unless massive policy changes are enacted, given all the circumstances surrounding the crisis in the first place, thats unlikely.

I would also like to point out to all who argues otherwise - density never has, and never will be a solution to affordability.

Vancouver is the densest city in Canada, with bar none the highest housing costs in Canada.

Toronto is now seeing a similar increase in density, and the market is responding with massive price increases.

Density will _always _ drive land values beyond affordability in a central zoning/masterplan system.

Agreed.

This place will forever remain unaffordable unless massive policy changes are enacted, given all the circumstances surrounding the crisis in the first place, thats unlikely.

I would also like to point out to all who argues otherwise - density never has, and never will be a solution to affordability.

Vancouver is the densest city in Canada, with bar none the highest housing costs in Canada.

Toronto is now seeing a similar increase in density, and the market is responding with massive price increases.

Density will _always _ drive land values beyond affordability in a central zoning/masterplan system.

When you talk about density - are you referring to density just inside the downtown peninsula or in Vancouver as a whole? IMO the downtown peninsula is very dense but the rest of Vancouver isn't dense at all. If you drive 5 mins outside of downtown you have nothing but single family homes on decent sized lots. That's the area they need to make more dense… knock down everything west of Main Street and replace it with townhouses and low-rise apartment buildings.