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Most of Vancouver and Canada was already nice and safe since pretty much forever. It's really not traditional gentrification. There is no local or canadian ec
by mahyarm 11y ago
Most of Vancouver and Canada was already nice and safe since pretty much forever. It's really not traditional gentrification. There is no local or canadian economic boom driving this.
The difference between a housing shortage and a housing bubble is when rents disconnect from housing prices. Rent is about 1/2 or less compared to an equivalent mortgage in many parts of Vancouver.
- ido 11y agoIn Berlin, rents lag even further behind[0]: Rents in Vancouver are 60% higher than Berlin, where as purchase prices are only ("only") 35% higher (net income is practically the same, with Vancouver being just ~4% higher than Berlin). [0] http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Canada&city2=Vancouver http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...
- kspaans 11y agoI've heard elsewhere that the reason for that pricing in Berlin (and/or Germany) is there a combination of policy and culture that makes houses unsuitable as investment vehicles. I forget what the exact mechanics are, but basically housing prices don't increase and no one expects them to. So there is almost no speculation in house prices: people buy houses if 1) they want to live there long term, or 2) they want to be landlords.
- ido 11y agoBut this would suggest the opposite of reality - that rents increase faster than house prices. In this case German house prices are relatively high & rising faster, when compared to rents. In Berlin in particular purchase prices have increased by 8-10% per year in recent years where as rent prices have only increased by 3-5% per year (both are still cheap compared to Vancouver).