JonboyE

It really depends on whereabouts in Surrey. It is geographically quite a large city and has some of the best, and some of the worst, places to live in Metro Vancouver.

Engineer_abroad

Foreign buyers crushing home dreams in Vancouver as Canada, BC do zip | Vancouver Sun interesting article in Vancouver Sun over the weekend.

The issue with housing in Vancouver, as it is in most places, is that it is now seen mainly as investment and not as homes (encouraged by lack of regulation . Until people start thinking of property as homes and not as pots of cash things wont change.

Aviator

Plenty of folks are OK with the pots of cash. For many in Vancouver it is or has been their retirement fund, which takes some of the burden off of the tax payers.

Engineer_abroad

But it does drive up prices for the next generation making home ownership for people wanting homes increasingly unattainable especially in cities like Vancouver where the lack of avalible land limits the building of new homes. I admit there is something especially odd going on in Vancouver to create 30% yearly increases.

BristolUK

And now the $20,000 Doll House.
Let Tamara Ecclestone crow over her toddler’s £10k playhouse | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett | Opinion | The Guardian

Rebecca Gowland

We are currently thinking about moving to Canada, considering BC,around Vancouver, or Quebec. Does anyone have any advice? My husband's a GP and would be the primary earner and we have three kids. Just getting started in thinking things through so any advice would be really welcome.

Stinkypup

Welcome Rebecca
There are a good number of us GPs over here. Apart from the assorted helpful Wikis at the top, this following thread would be your best initial bet. It is long but very helpful.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...ioners-781626/

dbd33

I thought Saint Jo Rowling's children had a more expensive playhouse than that but it's not mentioned in this piece, perhaps it's made from Graun-compliant sustainable timbers.

I've rather a soft spot for Ms. Ecclestone, I think it's fabulous that she has a turntable in her driveway so she doesn't have to reverse her cars.

BristolUK

Anything to do with those legs?

Rebecca Gowland

Thank you so so much. Will give it a read.

scrubbedexpat091

Maybe for your generation. But because of the high costs now my geberation and other younger ones will end up with little retirement as we cant afford a house.

We also dont have the same chance of income growth the previous generation had and are more likely to get stuck in one income bracket.

Aviator

That may be your personal circumstance, but not a whole generation. There are plenty of folks from all generations doing OK and going to do OK. With the mass retirements of boomers coming up, a lot of employees will have the pick of the jobs.

Folks said the same thing when I was a teeneager, how can the young afford to buy property around London. Plenty managed.

Engineer_abroad

Doesn't change the fact that the gap between average house price and average salary has grown. 6.4 times in 2002, 8.65 in 2007 and 8.78 in 2014. As long as that number goes up there is a disparity in the system which makes house ownership increasingly difficult for each new generation. Not saying was wasn't difficult for your generation but it is worse for the newer generations.

Stinkypup

Is that everywhere or just major cities- Vancouver, Toronto, London, New York etc?. If it is the latter then the hard fact is then is to look for work outside these areas or commute in. It was like that for my parents, commuting into London a good few years ago now. Mobility has improved, public transport has also improved over the years too. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Engineer_abroad

Agreed that there will always be some areas up and some down, and hence why statistics tend to use averages. Those numbers are the average UK. The London numbers are eye watering (Westminster 12x in 2002 and 24x in 2014). Vancouver would also be eye-watering unless you know many people who got a 30% increase in salary from last year. Housing is becoming more expensive across the board and that flows out to burbs. In reality it is simple economics, global population increases increasing demand and building of new homes has no where near kept pace.

Higher prices lead to higher rents (although I agree the increases are not nearly as sharp and that's partly due to legislation) and that traps younger generations into rental (paying so much in rent they cant afford to save the deposits for a mortgage (unlike those in the late 90's early 00's who had option of 100+% mortgages). This means they tend to be paying the same in rent as they would be with a mortgage but not gaining the benefit for equity. The early gen Y and late gen x are likely to lack adequate retirements savings, it isn't saving anyone money its deferring it to much larger costs in the future. Remember no one pays for their own government pensions they are paid from the generation before with the current generation paying for those retired now.