el_richo

2007 in SFO where prices remained below peak for nearly 7yrs.

Why is another bubbly situation with 20% increases a good thing? Unless you're selling out for good of course. The tech and biotech boom is a huge factor. What would propel Vancouver in that way other than selling real estate to each other?

The biggest issue for me is the fact younger folks are believing the spin given to them and putting all their eggs in one risky debt riddled basket. That's bad in many ways.

JonboyE

Did I say it was a good thing? Actually, I am indifferent. It is an economic reality.

As long as effective demand exceeds supply prices will go up over the longer term. There might even be small bubbles burst along the way but the trend will be up. Unless, that is, effective demand drops off significantly for a sustained period. I don't see that happening. Do you?

JuneSpring

JonboyE - I can see that happening if interest rates go up, but I guess Harper (cue the Federal election) will have an iron grip on that until after Q4..I expect. After that, who knows?

I read yesterday that Gregor Robertson, the Mayor of Vancouver, just sold his Point Grey home for a tidy profit of $400,000. He had closed the road to bikes during his residency there, enhancing its value. Immediately after the sale, he is echoing the words of Rennie - the Vancouver condo developer - to "call on the Premier to introduce a tax to discourage speculation". Passing the buck, paying lip service to the protest, and supporting developer friends all at once - right after pocketing the profits - political genius. It's sad these are the types of people voters are rewarding.

scrubbedexpat091

Real Estate such a pain in the arse.

Maybe condos will crash into the under 100k range for ones in buildings not falling apart and overall pile of junk?

ExKiwilass

is he a flipper though? he is getting a divorce so that may be why the sale.

my understanding is that the tax was targeting flippers specifically.

As for the bike lanes, a lot of people want them. Gregor was (at least partly) voted in on his stance on bike lanes. He's also implemented bike lanes in parts of the city he doesn't live in, fwiw. I don't see the issue.

JuneSpring

Mayor's Speculation Tax is a Set-Up

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson’s call on Friday for the provincial government to impose a tax on housing speculation has all the look of a not-very-elaborate set-up. It's a sop thrown to a furious public, and nobody's buying.

After all, the mayor just repeated a proposal made hours earlier by condo sales magnate and master ventriloquist, Bob Rennie. Rennie is one of Robertson’s most powerful financial backers and and stalwart supporter of Premier Christy Clark. Respect.

The unexpected arrival of Rennie's bouncing new proposal suggests both the Vancouver and B.C. governments are getting jumpy about the clamouring masses now openly demanding government action on the global capital flooding into Metro Vancouver’s residential real estate.

In the midst of a white-hot housing market, almost 25,000 have signed an online petition calling for restrictions on foreign buying. A major demonstration is planned for Sunday, organized by a group using the hashtag #Donthave1million.

Clark herself poured on the gasoline last week. "By moving foreign owners out of the market, housing prices will drop," she said, neatly summarizing the problem. But with unwavering loyalty to her base on the leafy boulevards of Shaughnessy, the premier cheerily proclaimed, "That’s good for first-time home buyers but not for anybody who is depending on the equity in their home to finance some other projects.”

However, she added brightly, the government remains “open to new ideas.”

Cue Bob Rennie.

And note how swiftly the Vancouver mayor adopted Rennie's proposal, in the complete absence of any substantiation by independent experts. After years of claiming we lack sufficient data for a major policy response to the affordability crisis, Robertson reversed himself overnight.

Where's the evidence that our real problem is investor flipping rather than the influx of global capital? Nonexistent. The provincial government doesn’t track foreign buying in real estate transactions, and it’s not going to.

On May 7, Housing Minister Rich Coleman declared that B.C. won't gather data that might tell us what's going on in our own market. Unlike such socialist sissies as Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and London that do track foreign buying, B.C.’s government knows the value of wilful blindness.

The provincial government doesn’t want data about global capital, and doesn't want the public to have it either.

And where is Mayor Gregor Robertson on this ludicrous provincial obstinacy? Where was he when Premier Christy Clark pitted west-side homeowners against the working poor and struggling middle class gasping for relief? Nowhere in sight.

Robertson's speculation tax proposal isn't meant to solve a housing problem, but rather the political problem of an increasingly livid public.

Repeating Bob Rennie's policy ideas will only make things worse. According to a recent Insights West poll, 73 per cent of Vancouverites think developers and lobbyists have too much influence at city hall.

They're right.

Turning developer talking points into government policy is a phony cure. Gregor Robertson must demand data and real answers from the province and the feds.

As the South China Morning Post’s Ian Young recently tweeted, affordable housing is Vancouver's most pressing social justice issue.

It's long past time that Mayor Robertson made it his.

Mayor's speculation tax is a set-up | Vancouver Observer

JuneSpring

Earthquake will bring a lot down

JuneSpring

On this point, more seriously

In Vancouver, race undercuts the discussion on real estate affordability


"It helps to have a thick skin when reporting on the nexus between Chinese money and Vancouver’s sky-high property market. It also might help if that skin, like mine, isn’t white.

Accusations of racism flow thick and fast whenever an attempt is made to connect wealth-based immigration, primarily by rich Chinese, and housing prices here. Since influential condo marketer Bob Rennie delivered a speech to the Urban Development Institute in May, in which he said “sensational” stories making that link were “bordering on racism,” an array of industry figures have lined up to support his proposition.

But now, some in the Chinese community are pushing back. “Guys like Bob Rennie, they are trying to stop full conversation and intelligent conversation by using words like ‘racism,’” said long-time Chinatown activist David Wong. “People are afraid to speak when people start throwing that word around.”

Mr. Wong, an architect who has campaigned on behalf of impoverished Chinese immigrants, said it was vital to have a frank discussion about the impact of rich immigrants on greater Vancouver, where average detached house prices top $1.2-million. “Every time people want to talk about this, they get labelled a racist, especially if they are non-Asian,” said Wong. “That’s nonsense. We’ve got to talk about it. The politicians are gutless because they are afraid they are going to lose the so-called ethnic vote.”

Mr. Rennie’s May 15 speech was swiftly followed by a range of commentary that hewed closely to his line. On June 3, pro-development political consultant Bob Ransford warned in The Vancouver Sun that addressing unaffordability by restricting foreign ownership would “tread very close” to the historical discrimination of the anti-Chinese head tax.

Two days later, University of British Columbia professor Tsur Somerville – whose Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate is sponsored by developers Grosvenor and Henderson Development, as well as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association – told CKNW Radio that although ignoring the issue would be “foolish,” the debate risked descending into “prejudice, stereotypes and racism.” Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association, meanwhile told The Vancouver Observer on June 5 that linking immigration to property prices “is beginning to sound suspiciously awkward.”

In Vancouver, race undercuts the discussion on real estate affordability - The Globe and Mail

ExKiwilass

June, you are new here. a lot of people don't like gregor - they don't like the bike lanes, they're older, they think everyone should drive a car, etc etc. the observer's piece is just more of the same gregor-hate.

teh fact is, gregor can't do anything about foreign buyers - this needs to be dealt with at the provincial or federal level, not municipal. the city has very little money for affordable housing - hence needing to get developers on board to build some. easy to blame the mayor when he can't do much.

ExKiwilass

it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth when an immigrant to vancouver posts an article pointing the finger at other foreigners buying in vancouver. again, no one is owed a single family house in vancouver. if you can't afford one, move to the 'burbs or buy a condo.

JuneSpring

OK, noted. Thanks.

JuneSpring

I have been reading a lot on this lately, and I know that there is a protest today at the Art Gallery.

My understanding is it is not an immigrant/racism issue, but it is the issue of money laundering, corrupt money, multiple homes being used as an empty investment chest with no contribution back into society.

Personally, at least, I find that these are valid issues to discuss and scrutinize. It's not enough for politicians to blow hot air and pass the buck anymore. Or did I get it wrong again?

Shard

Interesting demographic shifts from within Vancouver. I wonder if there is a genuinely big grey market or if it mostly condo spin.

Sitting on gold mines, older Vancouver homeowners cashing in - The Globe and Mail

Shard

Unlikely. Property is too slow and traceable an asset.

scilly

hmmmmmm ............


Half truths and speculation by someone who has it in for the current City Council


Sandy Garossino who wrote that article in the Vancouver Observer was a failed candidate for City Council at the last municipal election ........ running for a party called Occupy Vancouver.

...... so an adversary of Gregor Robertson and the current Council

She's also been called one of the biggest bullies on Twitter.

I'd take what she says about Robertson with a huge pinch of salt ........and no, I am not being an apologist for him.

I believe in truth being told, and there is much stretching of the truth in that article from what I know of past events.