scilly

We lived in a concrete building for our first 4 years in Vancouver ........ and it was by no means as quiet as you might think!

We could hear the couple next door having rows, we could hear every footstep in the apartment above our heads, even in the living room which was carpeted. The bedroom was even worse as that was hardwood flooring..

Being a concrete building does not necessarily mean that the interior walls are also of concrete .......... just watch some of them being built The floors are of concrete ........ but that made no difference in the place we were in.

The apartment building we lived in was built in 1964, we lived there from 1968 to 1972 ......... and it is still there. I think it is still rental ....... the building seems to be currently on sale for $15 million


We know an architect who worked on the design of one of the buildings in Olympic Village back around 2006/7 ........... concrete, yes. But the athletes were allowed to have much less room per person than a buyer would want, and each apartment had to be designed so that 4 or 6 athletes could share, 2 to a bedroom. The inside walls had to be designed so that they could be moved after the Games were over into a "saleable" configuration.

That means, they were not concrete

scrubbedexpat091

Yes the inside walls still have to be well insulated which unfortunately developers like to cheap out on.

I think that is a big reason I want a house, I am tired of always listening to foot steps above me, it becomes quite annoying eventually, especially when there are small kids above you and its non-stop running back and forth all day every day, annoys the living daylights out of me.

Only avoidance of that is to live on the top floor, but when renting you don't always (usually) have that choice and have to take what happens to be vacant at the time, or in our case pets are only allowed on ground level.

On days like this I also think how nice it would be to sit next a pond and waterfall relaxing and just enjoying the day, instead of being inside all day.

Just going for a walk isn't the same.


But owning a house is never going to be in our cards, and I am thinking renting is better then owning a condo, I am willing to give up freedom and flexibility to own a house, but not sure I am to own a condo, and because we will never have the income to buy a house, a condo isn't a stepping stone like it could be for a younger person with more earning potential down the road.

Shard

Get a house. Even if you have to move.

future_canadian

Hope you didn't hear them in bed!

We are recently granted PRs, about to land and looking for a house in Tri-Cities. I can't believe how expensive they are! The bubble's got to burst sometime right?

I don't agree with restricting "foreign investment" as that seems to me to be code for racism, but I do agree it's a problem that the average family is being priced out of the market and that many houses are bought as investments and remain empty. There's no community with empty houses.

I think the solution is more government action to increase the supply of affordable housing. Look at all the co-ops, they are affordable but decent places to live (as far as I can tell, we visited a few on our last trip), and they have waiting lists of 2+ years. If the co-ops can be financially self-sufficient and still affordable, then the government ought to be able to build affordable housing on a similar model without pouring money in (except for initial construction).

Just a thought.

Shard

You're moving to the wrong country if you think that. Prices in Vancouver won't be going down anytime soon - too much demand.

future_canadian

I didn't say I thought it would happen. I said I would like to see it.

I'm pretty sure we're moving to the right country!

scrubbedexpat091

If all goes well, we want to eventually relocate to Vancouver Island, once outside Victoria housing can be found in smaller city's within a reasonable price range.

We just have to try and gain some skills via college first so make ourselves more attractive to employers.

Aviator

Until you are a property owner, then perhaps it should stay up? Be a bugger if the bubble burst just after you bought eh!

Shard

future_canadian

Not if we plan to stay in it for a long time.

What I would like to see is more affordable housing options for those with more modest means, not a bubble burst. My comment about the bubble bursting was about inevitability (they always burst), not about wishing for it to happen.

Former Lancastrian

If pressures on home prices in Metro Vancouver continue, the average cost to buy a detached house could hit more than $2.1 million by 2030, predicts a new report by Vancity.

The financial institution also forecasts that it will require more than 100 per cent of household income to maintain such unaffordable properties in Vancouver, leading to unsustainable debt loads.
The city's chief housing officer Mukhtar Latif told the Vancouver Sun that the new Affordable Housing Agency plans to build more than 1,000 mostly rental units over the next four years. Those would be open to people who bring in low to moderate earnings, up to $86,000 per year.
Vancouver House Prices Could Average Over $2.1 Million By 2030: Vancity Report

There again there are numerous reports of when and IF the bubble will burst. One author even suggests a 40 to 50% drop
Canadian home prices to fall 40-50 per cent, financial author says | Globalnews.ca

scilly

The major problem, as I see it, in Vancouver is NOT foreign speculation or foreign buyers driving up the prices .......... it is in fact becoming more obvious that there are many locals buying the high priced condos and houses, and there is no evidence that foreign speculation is occurring. It does indeed come over as racist.

The problem really is that there is no land in Vancouver for development. We do not have large empty spaces sitting there just waiting for the government to build houses.

This is the reason that houses have always been more expensive in Vancouver than elsewhere .......... people have been complaining since at least the 1930s that housing is too expensive here.

The only empty spaces are small lots here and there, parks and green spaces, the cemetery, and industrial zoned areas. So, development of new housing has to be done by demolishing existing houses and building a much larger one (more bang for the buck??), or dividing the lot into half and building two new houses, or buying up several houses in a row and combining the lots for re-development into condos or row houses.

The price asked for any house consists of a huge amount for the land and comparatively small amount for the house.

As an example, we have a small 2 bedroom "veteran's" house on a 33' x 122' lot that we bought in 1972 for $27,200. The latest assessment for house and land is over $1.1 million .......... the house alone is assessed $27,200, the rest of the value is due to that small amount of land.

We thought about buying a bigger house in 1976 .......... but we couldn't afford what we wanted, decided that we really liked this neighbourhood and our neighbours, so we did a major renovation on this house, adding an extra bathroom and big family room.

When we do eventually sell, we know the house will be demolished, a much bigger house will be built with 4 or 5 bedrooms and equal number of bathrooms, granite and marble in all bathrooms and the kitchen, etc. It will cost several hundred thousand dollars to build and will sell for about $1 million or $1.5 million than we sold for.


Unfortunately, I don't really see the "bubble" breaking that much. There will be an adjustment when mortgage interest rates increase, as they undoubtedly will, and people who have over-extended themselves are forced to sell, or walk away from their houses and let the mortgage companies take over.

That happened back in the 1980s when interest rates rose as high as 21% ....... but the cheap house prices didn't last for long.

Again ......... a reflection on the geographical position of Vancouver, which has no ability to expand its boundaries with other cities to the east and water to the north, west and south

Shard

That is patently ridiculous. Anybody who buys property in Vancouver "drives up prices" they are part of demand. That includes foreigners of all stripes.

scilly

so...........

by your reasoning, the solution would be to stop anyone buying a house in Vancouver??????

scrubbedexpat091

BC Government doesn't have a whole lot of interest in building affordable housing, if they did, there would not be literally thousands on the wait list for BC housing with 10 year waits in some places.

I live in a small town, and there are 32 BC Housing units currently for singles and couples and you have to be on disability in order to qualify, so any normal low income folks are up the creek without a paddle.

There is as of last month 80 people on the waiting list for those 32 units, and to give an idea how often people move, there was 1 person who moved out in 2014, and 1 so far in 2015 (us) so in 2 years 2 units have opened up.

BC government has no interest in helping low income anyone, or the disabled for that matter seeing they refuse to increase the amount disabled person gets which for a single is 375 for rent, and 531 for living costs, max. You won't find housing in most of BC city's, so you have to top up rent with the 531 leaving nearly nothing to live on for some folks.

The government could do it, but they don't want to fund it, its not an election breaking issue, so no reason in the government's view to do more then the bare minimum.