Rob_999

Yes! From my experience the cost of living in Vancouver is only marginally cheaper than London. Lets say you earn GBP40,000 per year in London, you'll want to be earning at least CA$70,000 for a similar lifestyle in Vancouver.

Kaye5

Yep, not gonna happen!! I think I'll stay looking in the East, where we may be able to buy more or less outright, then salary requirements are not so great.... no great desire for mountains anyway...

Chickensoup

vancouver is ridiculously expensive because foreign investors have hoovered up all the properties. Also the salaries are on the whole very average, so it's like getting a Reading wage but living in London.

If you live in the outskirts of Vancouver it's nice but then you heavily sacrifice on views and quality of buildings. I love Vancouver to bits but many of the suburbs are just like shacks scarring the landscape, if we ignore suburbs to north west of Vancouver which are spectacular.

so if you want to afford a house in vancouver and your salary was, say, 50,000 CAD, you'd be looking at a disappointing house in Burnaby or beyond.

calgary in Alberta is actually one of the strongest economies in Canada AND you have the mountains an hour away. toronto is still affected by global financial turmoil.

We'd love to move back to Vancouver (it's just mind blowingly amazing) but we need a LOT more money to make it worth it.

Hopefully when the olympics are over prices will drop there a bit.

R I C H

Don't hold your breath.....

No evidence of a post-Olympics boom or bust for host city real estate prices: UBC study

Cities that win Olympic bids experience neither boom nor bust in their real estate prices, but gain construction jobs as they prepare for the Games, according to researchers at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

More:
http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010...ces-ubc-study/

G77

Other than the creation of jobs - is there any other factor that persuades people to buy houses in an olympic hosting city? Better facilities?

Chickensoup

Oh darn it.

I think with a city like Vancouver that will get a lot of exposure on the Telly during the games, you will get a lot of people saying, "ooh that looks nice dear, whereabouts is that?" .

let's be honest, a lot of Brits have not heard of Vancouver, let alone know whereabouts it is on the map.

and once you've been there, it's difficult to not love the scenery and location.

So that may increase the demand on houses. Maybe. (Hope it doesn't.)

Having said that, once the games have finished, then everyone may just forget about Vancouver so I really don't have a clue what I am trying to say. I suppose I agree with the study in the post above mine....

Auld Yin

Here you go, a cheap housing alternative for Vancouver.

http://www.nationalpost.com/most-pop...tml?id=2483680

dboy

The games will focuus attention on the place for a fleeting moment, it's how the city brands itself following the games that will really matter. We have gained some excellent infrastructure improvements due to the games that will be of benefit to the place: Canada Line, sea to sky highway, the conference centre, and sporting venues. We have a great canvass to work with, but someone has to get the paint brushes out.

dboy

Not that I could live in such a space, but some may see benefits in it. Having said that, there are plenty of bachelor suites downtown around the 400 sq foot mark that serve the same purpopse.

What I'm more encouraged about is that the area that the developers are looking at is ground zero on the DTES and there appears to be a real movement gaining momentum to turn the area around.

DigitalGhost

That's definitely bad news as one of the reasons why I want to leave the UK is because I think IT is vastly underpaid and under-appreciated over here.

dboy

I doubt its any worse that Manchester? For some odd reason here, government jobs are well paid. Frankly I'm shocked at times what they pay me here as a copper, not to mention benefits (for life) and pension.

R I C H

Really? Vastly?

Many IT related jobs are just administrative and repetitious, not requiring any sort of exceptional training or qualifications, therefore they're not deserving of particularly high wages.

Those that require lengthy experience or unusual skills pay well above average earnings in my experience, and individuals with particular skills in demand easily surpass six figure salaries.

Having IT skills (whatever that broad terms means) is the norm, not the exception in many jobs. I actually believe individuals entering IT have unrealistic and inflated expectations about their market value and earning potential.

Alan2005

Like anything, the averages don't necessarily apply to individuals, it depends on how good you can prove you are and what sort of IT you are looking for.

If you are a games developer who has had a big role in some major recent franchises then you can probably command a salary at the top percentiles. If you are just plugging cables in then the average market rate is what you should probably expect.

Alan2005

You could argue that there is no such thing as underpaid. There is only supply / demand and the rest is opinion.

DigitalGhost

I'm qualified as a Systems Administrator and I currently work as a Server Engineer and DBA, it's really underpaid for the amount of dedication and hard work that a lot of people put in though.