20 ms·

The median salary in Vancouver is substantially lower than Sydney, and its property values are similar. Vancouver salaries are also lower than almost all of Ca

The median salary in Vancouver is substantially lower than Sydney, and its property values are similar. Vancouver salaries are also lower than almost all of Canada's metros, while having the highest property costs. Vancouver also has the best weather. The Canadian metro with the best opportunity and lowest comparative costs is Montreal.

kazinator 7y ago
> The median salary in Vancouver is substantially lower than Sydney, and its property values are similar. Not that you actually own that property value in Vancouver. If you run away and go work somewhere else for a year, and don't rent it, you owe Vancouver a hefty empty home tax.
- 8note 7y ago
  ideally you'd be taxed at a higher rate than that just as property tax, regardless of whether it's empty, being rented, or lived in
  - CountSessine 7y ago
    You still have to pay property tax - but you also have to pay an empty home tax on top of that.
blackrock 7y ago
Why is property value in Sydney so high? You have only 30 million people, living on an island continent the size of the United States. And is the country with probably the longest warm water coastline on the planet.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- madeofpalk 7y ago
  Probably the same as anywhere else. Many people want to live in a limited area, house prices go up. People who can afford them buy them, which keeps house prices there.
- mcbain 7y ago
  The inland of Australia is nothing like inland North America. There is very little water, much is literally desert. Something like 85% of the population lives within 50km of the coastline.
  - blackrock 7y ago
    The desert sounds like a good place to harvest the sun. Install some solar panels, and use it to crack water, to make hydrogen, and convert it to ammonia. Australia can power the next fuel cell revolution.
    - Retric 7y ago
      That’s taking a huge efficiency hit over using batteries while costing more money. What’s the goal?
      - tgflynn 7y ago
        Liquid hydrogen and liquid ammonia have almost 10x the energy density of current battery technology. If you could go all the way to synthesized hydrocarbons it's another 2x. I'm not sure efficiency matters that much when you have far more energy production capacity than you need but it's concentrated in places and times where you can't use it. As for costing more: compared to what ? Batteries don't seem like an economically effective option for storing solar energy at massive scale, do they ? And in any case they don't allow the stored energy to be shipped to other locations.
        jandrese 7y ago
        Energy density is a mostly useless metric for grid storage. It's installed in a place where land is cheap so if its bulky who cares? Efficiency and simplicity are the main goals. You want something that doesn't waste much power and doesn't require a huge team of experts to keep running or cost an absolute fortune to install
        Retric 7y ago
- pentae 7y ago
  It's one of the few places in the country where the climate is just perfect.

kazinator 7y ago

> The median salary in Vancouver is substantially lower than Sydney, and its property values are similar. Not that you actually own that property value in Vancouver. If you run away and go work somewhere else for a year, and don't rent it, you owe Vancouver a hefty empty home tax.

8note 7y ago
ideally you'd be taxed at a higher rate than that just as property tax, regardless of whether it's empty, being rented, or lived in
- CountSessine 7y ago
  You still have to pay property tax - but you also have to pay an empty home tax on top of that.

blackrock 7y ago

Why is property value in Sydney so high? You have only 30 million people, living on an island continent the size of the United States. And is the country with probably the longest warm water coastline on the planet.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
madeofpalk 7y ago
Probably the same as anywhere else. Many people want to live in a limited area, house prices go up. People who can afford them buy them, which keeps house prices there.
mcbain 7y ago
The inland of Australia is nothing like inland North America. There is very little water, much is literally desert. Something like 85% of the population lives within 50km of the coastline.
- blackrock 7y ago
  The desert sounds like a good place to harvest the sun. Install some solar panels, and use it to crack water, to make hydrogen, and convert it to ammonia. Australia can power the next fuel cell revolution.
  - Retric 7y ago
    That’s taking a huge efficiency hit over using batteries while costing more money. What’s the goal?
    - tgflynn 7y ago
      Liquid hydrogen and liquid ammonia have almost 10x the energy density of current battery technology. If you could go all the way to synthesized hydrocarbons it's another 2x. I'm not sure efficiency matters that much when you have far more energy production capacity than you need but it's concentrated in places and times where you can't use it. As for costing more: compared to what ? Batteries don't seem like an economically effective option for storing solar energy at massive scale, do they ? And in any case they don't allow the stored energy to be shipped to other locations.
      - jandrese 7y ago
        Energy density is a mostly useless metric for grid storage. It's installed in a place where land is cheap so if its bulky who cares? Efficiency and simplicity are the main goals. You want something that doesn't waste much power and doesn't require a huge team of experts to keep running or cost an absolute fortune to install
      - Retric 7y ago
pentae 7y ago
It's one of the few places in the country where the climate is just perfect.