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"The city is half full of rich Chinese driving Audis, and nearly all real estate signs come in Chinese." No, this is not true. You must not live in Vancouver.

by msie 10y ago

"The city is half full of rich Chinese driving Audis, and nearly all real estate signs come in Chinese." No, this is not true. You must not live in Vancouver. It is really sad that this myth continues to have a life of its own. I mostly blame the press and politicians for perpetuating it. I also blame everyone for lazy thinking. Latest reports peg foreign ownership at 5%. People seem to overlook that the majority of buyers are Canadians who want to live in Vancouver, the favourable mortgage rates, and the geography of Vancouver which makes it hard to build more SD houses.

CountSessine 10y ago
No, this is not true. You must not live in Vancouver. It is really sad that this myth continues to have a life of its own I am from Vancouver and I don't know what you're talking about - every for-sale sign I see here in Burnaby for a detached house is primarily or exclusively in Chinese. Do you live in Vancouver? Latest reports peg foreign ownership at 5%. These are reports that are published almost exclusively by the BCREA, an organization that is known to misrepresent data (the so-called 'Benchmark Home' price, cross-market mixing, etc) and is the only organization other than the government that has this data. Do you know why the provincial government imposed the foreign buyers tax? It was because after about 6 months of collecting this data, they realized that they had been so thoroughly and completely lied to by the BCREA, especially for sales figures in Burnaby and Coquitlam, that they felt compelled to act. The 5% sales figure comes from aggregating all sales of all 'homes', condo+detached houses+apartments+pre-sales across the entire Fraser Valley, including places like Chilliwack. It also groups together the absurd stock of 1 bedroom condos that families can't live in with detached houses which 10 years ago families depended on. Please stop quoting this ridiculous 5% figure - you're doing so much more damage than you realize. I can't be everywhere to correct you. Nobody cares about house prices in Chilliwack because they're still quite reasonable and they're too far away from where all of the jobs are. 75% of the GVRD is inflexibly zoned for detached houses and all of this property has now been bid out of the hands of Canadians who earn their living in this city. What good is 95% of housing not being purchased by foreign investors when it's all in Chilliwack or Squamish or is one of the ubiquitous lofts or 1 bedroom apartments that are completely unsuitable for families? Ideally we would de-zone Vancouver and allow the city to organically densify - a city that can build as many homes as it needs can frustrate investors and still provide everyone with an affordable home. But in the meantime, the foreign buyer tax halted rocketing detached house prices and put a lid on what anyone can charge for similar market housing like 3 and 4 bedroom condos. Let's not pretend that this was going to get any better without that tax.
taurath 10y ago
This is just my perception from driving around downtown, and east and south several weeks ago. Lots and lots of cars almost exclusively driven by older Chinese, and nearly all the real estate signs I saw were Chinese. I don't dispute your data but that impression I got stayed with me, and was confirmed by the several friends I knew who had lived in or around the city their whole lives. I wonder where the discrepancy is.
allengeorge 10y ago
Well, in Toronto - anecdotally - a lot of condos are being snapped up by Chinese. I have no problem if these individuals work and live in Toronto itself, but I have a serious problem if they're holding on to it as investments. In that case I've no issues with slapping punitive taxes on the property.

by msie 10y ago

CountSessine 10y ago

No, this is not true. You must not live in Vancouver. It is really sad that this myth continues to have a life of its own I am from Vancouver and I don't know what you're talking about - every for-sale sign I see here in Burnaby for a detached house is primarily or exclusively in Chinese. Do you live in Vancouver? Latest reports peg foreign ownership at 5%. These are reports that are published almost exclusively by the BCREA, an organization that is known to misrepresent data (the so-called 'Benchmark Home' price, cross-market mixing, etc) and is the only organization other than the government that has this data. Do you know why the provincial government imposed the foreign buyers tax? It was because after about 6 months of collecting this data, they realized that they had been so thoroughly and completely lied to by the BCREA, especially for sales figures in Burnaby and Coquitlam, that they felt compelled to act. The 5% sales figure comes from aggregating all sales of all 'homes', condo+detached houses+apartments+pre-sales across the entire Fraser Valley, including places like Chilliwack. It also groups together the absurd stock of 1 bedroom condos that families can't live in with detached houses which 10 years ago families depended on. Please stop quoting this ridiculous 5% figure - you're doing so much more damage than you realize. I can't be everywhere to correct you. Nobody cares about house prices in Chilliwack because they're still quite reasonable and they're too far away from where all of the jobs are. 75% of the GVRD is inflexibly zoned for detached houses and all of this property has now been bid out of the hands of Canadians who earn their living in this city. What good is 95% of housing not being purchased by foreign investors when it's all in Chilliwack or Squamish or is one of the ubiquitous lofts or 1 bedroom apartments that are completely unsuitable for families? Ideally we would de-zone Vancouver and allow the city to organically densify - a city that can build as many homes as it needs can frustrate investors and still provide everyone with an affordable home. But in the meantime, the foreign buyer tax halted rocketing detached house prices and put a lid on what anyone can charge for similar market housing like 3 and 4 bedroom condos. Let's not pretend that this was going to get any better without that tax.

taurath 10y ago

This is just my perception from driving around downtown, and east and south several weeks ago. Lots and lots of cars almost exclusively driven by older Chinese, and nearly all the real estate signs I saw were Chinese. I don't dispute your data but that impression I got stayed with me, and was confirmed by the several friends I knew who had lived in or around the city their whole lives. I wonder where the discrepancy is.

allengeorge 10y ago

Well, in Toronto - anecdotally - a lot of condos are being snapped up by Chinese. I have no problem if these individuals work and live in Toronto itself, but I have a serious problem if they're holding on to it as investments. In that case I've no issues with slapping punitive taxes on the property.