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In my area, housing is in a terrible state. My house almost doubled in price every 5 years. I down graded into a town house that 10 years ago was $130,000 new,

In my area, housing is in a terrible state. My house almost doubled in price every 5 years. I down graded into a town house that 10 years ago was $130,000 new, they are selling for $500,000 now. I was talking to someone that works for the city and they told me my current townhouse were originally 'low income housing'. No wonder we have such an explosion of homeless people. We've had conservative and liberal governments here, our government has failed us, doesn't matter which direction you want to point and blame for our current unsustainable housing.

ricardobayes 3y ago
How come Canada doesn't build more houses? As I see that's the only way to keep prices from rising. Here in Spain, which is a comparable country in terms of population, real estate is big business, especially on the coast. In some areas, there are still unsold housing stock from the 2008 turmoil, yet they keep building like crazy. Fortunately there's plenty of land available. Maybe it helps that we don't have mega-cities, but the whole country is pretty decentralized. You can have the same quality of life in Sevilla, Bilbao or Valencia, like Madrid or Barcelona. Prices didn't rise all that much, prices are just now coming back to early-2000s levels. You can easily buy a well-built brick 3 bedroom house for under 200k.
- xemoka 3y ago
  Similar reasons to elsewhere with these problems: lots of NIMBY, lots of people who think (at least here on Vancouver Island) that we should just close up shop and not have anyone new move here, lots of building requirements that increase pricing (not necessarily a bad thing, but compounds the issue), lots of people who don't want to devalue their homes (because most Canadians have seen it as their "retirement plan" for their entire adult lives), poor zoning practices amplified by voter apathy and a misunderstanding of population realities (i.e. Vancouver, where single-family residential dominated for decades, instead of increased density). It's a cacophony of poor planning and people who are stuck in the past—or at least what they imagine the past to be.

ricardobayes 3y ago

How come Canada doesn't build more houses? As I see that's the only way to keep prices from rising. Here in Spain, which is a comparable country in terms of population, real estate is big business, especially on the coast. In some areas, there are still unsold housing stock from the 2008 turmoil, yet they keep building like crazy. Fortunately there's plenty of land available. Maybe it helps that we don't have mega-cities, but the whole country is pretty decentralized. You can have the same quality of life in Sevilla, Bilbao or Valencia, like Madrid or Barcelona. Prices didn't rise all that much, prices are just now coming back to early-2000s levels. You can easily buy a well-built brick 3 bedroom house for under 200k.

xemoka 3y ago
Similar reasons to elsewhere with these problems: lots of NIMBY, lots of people who think (at least here on Vancouver Island) that we should just close up shop and not have anyone new move here, lots of building requirements that increase pricing (not necessarily a bad thing, but compounds the issue), lots of people who don't want to devalue their homes (because most Canadians have seen it as their "retirement plan" for their entire adult lives), poor zoning practices amplified by voter apathy and a misunderstanding of population realities (i.e. Vancouver, where single-family residential dominated for decades, instead of increased density). It's a cacophony of poor planning and people who are stuck in the past—or at least what they imagine the past to be.