6 ms·

I have a feeling 99% of these homes they are referring to are condo's in Vancouver and Toronto (VAN,YYZ are the condo building capitals of NA). A lot of these u

I have a feeling 99% of these homes they are referring to are condo's in Vancouver and Toronto (VAN,YYZ are the condo building capitals of NA). A lot of these units are owned buy foreigners or as investment properties. According to a real estate friend, some Chinese have purchased entire floors of these buildings to park capital fleeing China. I know that many buildings in downtown Toronto can be up to 50% AirBnb rentals. Coincidentally, I spoke with someone on the weekend who can't take it anymore and wants to sell their unit or put it to work as an AirBnb because of the amount of prostitutes, drug dealers, etc using the building as short term rentals through AirBnB. Canada really needs to get a grip on foreign ownership. 10's - 100's of billions of capital outflows over the last decade from China, Hong Kong, Iran, etc have created a tough environment for the local population. Co-op's could possibly solve this problem by creating rules where short term rentals, foreign ownership, etc are not allowed. Although it's tough to get a mortgage for a co-op condo.

hi5eyes 7y ago
my friend just a year out of undergrad started a short term rental management company here in toronto and its crazy how much money comes thru, and ive lived my entire life around one of the wealthiest areas of the country
kitcar 7y ago
It's affecting all property types. I know of one street corner where there is one newish townhouse which is a full-time AirBnB, as well as a turn-of-the-century apartment walk-up which is 100% airBnB. There is also a 1970's apartment building where a number of "tenants" sublease their property on AirBnB. I found this all out when I was helping a friend look for a place to stay near the University of Toronto...
john_moscow 7y ago
Vancouverite here. The biggest trouble is that our economy now really depends on that dirty money. The biggest sector of the BC economy (almost 20%) is real estate and the next one is construction with 8%. So banning that would mean losing roughly a third of the budget income, let alone most mortgages going under. On the other hand, continuing it would make property ownership pretty much out of reach for anyone without external capital flowing in. Tough spot.
- blueside 7y ago
  The moral dilemma of curtailing dirty money to keep your economy going. Yikes.
- harryVic 7y ago
  You make an assumption that foreign money is entirely funding those two industries which is untrue. Vancouver is the most desirable city in a country with 36 Million people, so it makes sense for real estate to be expensive there. And new immigrants want to live in lower BC because it is warm here. I am an immigrant and I live in Victoria. It doesn't matter how much more I could make in Calgary, I don't want to spend 9 months of a year shoveling snow.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    So Vancouver is a nice place to live, but so is nearby Seattle. Does Vancouver deserve to be more expensive than Seattle rent wise? No, at least as a tech worker, the salaries just aren't there.
    - harryVic 7y ago
      Moving to Vancouver from another country is much easier than moving to Seattle. And Seattle is considered to be a city with a bad weather in the US. That bad weather is actually considered good here in Canada.
      - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
        A lot of techies from Vancouver are working in Seattle under NAFTA TN visas, which are pretty easy to get.
        Macross8299 7y ago
        It is not surprising considering how similar Vancouver and Seattle are and considering that the Vancouver mayor openly brags about how low tech salaries are [0] [0]: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/city-of-vancouver-criticized-for-boasting-about-low-pay-of-its-tech-workers-in-amazon-hq-bid https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/city-of-vancouver-criti...
itsaidpens 7y ago
Any thoughts on Montreal?

hi5eyes 7y ago

my friend just a year out of undergrad started a short term rental management company here in toronto and its crazy how much money comes thru, and ive lived my entire life around one of the wealthiest areas of the country

kitcar 7y ago

It's affecting all property types. I know of one street corner where there is one newish townhouse which is a full-time AirBnB, as well as a turn-of-the-century apartment walk-up which is 100% airBnB. There is also a 1970's apartment building where a number of "tenants" sublease their property on AirBnB. I found this all out when I was helping a friend look for a place to stay near the University of Toronto...

john_moscow 7y ago

Vancouverite here. The biggest trouble is that our economy now really depends on that dirty money. The biggest sector of the BC economy (almost 20%) is real estate and the next one is construction with 8%. So banning that would mean losing roughly a third of the budget income, let alone most mortgages going under. On the other hand, continuing it would make property ownership pretty much out of reach for anyone without external capital flowing in. Tough spot.

blueside 7y ago
The moral dilemma of curtailing dirty money to keep your economy going. Yikes.
harryVic 7y ago
You make an assumption that foreign money is entirely funding those two industries which is untrue. Vancouver is the most desirable city in a country with 36 Million people, so it makes sense for real estate to be expensive there. And new immigrants want to live in lower BC because it is warm here. I am an immigrant and I live in Victoria. It doesn't matter how much more I could make in Calgary, I don't want to spend 9 months of a year shoveling snow.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  So Vancouver is a nice place to live, but so is nearby Seattle. Does Vancouver deserve to be more expensive than Seattle rent wise? No, at least as a tech worker, the salaries just aren't there.
  - harryVic 7y ago
    Moving to Vancouver from another country is much easier than moving to Seattle. And Seattle is considered to be a city with a bad weather in the US. That bad weather is actually considered good here in Canada.
    - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      A lot of techies from Vancouver are working in Seattle under NAFTA TN visas, which are pretty easy to get.
      - Macross8299 7y ago
        It is not surprising considering how similar Vancouver and Seattle are and considering that the Vancouver mayor openly brags about how low tech salaries are [0] [0]: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/city-of-vancouver-criticized-for-boasting-about-low-pay-of-its-tech-workers-in-amazon-hq-bid https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/city-of-vancouver-criti...

itsaidpens 7y ago

Any thoughts on Montreal?