I learned something early this year from a friend in the finance industry. Part of the reason you find so many empty overpriced new apartments/condos/commercial

I learned something early this year from a friend in the finance industry. Part of the reason you find so many empty overpriced new apartments/condos/commercial is that they are written into the loan... and if even a single unit is rented/sold below the rate that was contracted the entire loan has to be renegotiated/paid within the year. If you're speculating on price increases, there's no reason to rent any of them. Frankly, when there is so much empty space the desire for increased building, higher density, and reduced code requirements just looks like what builder/speculators want... not what will increase actual affordable housing for people with jobs (who need to get there somehow). The whole 22 bus line as a "Transit Corridor" is a joke that lets developers use public space for private profit... the Safeway parking lot is already half full at 3am and apparently they're planning to start charging for it! Why not just do what Vancouver did and put an annual fee on empty (no renter on taxes, resident owner on taxes, or going concern on rolls) residential/commercial to curb speculation? Because the developers who fund local politicians would lose money. Further, they would threaten the politicians with "no one will ever build here again because of these fees!".