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Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

business.financialpost.com

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Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#201

Post by jonsmit »

acchow wrote: post #163
vonnik wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should look more closely at Manhattan and SF. There is a ton of speculation, luxury highrises, and out-of-town wealthy buying second-, third- or fifth homes.

You really don't see any empty homes in SF...

Anecdotally I see a lot of empty apartments here in SF. Not as bad as London though. I basicslly had an entire massive luxury apartment complex to myself. I would walk around the halls drinking with friends carrying a prop ax pretending we were in the shining. Good times.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#202

Post by messick »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #107

Nothing has changed in the last 20 years. House prices are still high, and salaries are still low. There is no real industry in Vancouver except tourism. At least the rents are somewhat affordable, tho. The gap between house prices vs rent prices is immense, compared to a place like San Francisco. You can rent a 2 bedroom in the West End for ~$1500.

"Direct spending on Film & TV production in British Columbia (BC) totalled more than $2 billion in 2014 making Vancouver the 3rd largest production centre in North America"

http://www.vancouvereconomic.com/film-television/

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#203

Post by refurb »

stanmancan wrote: post #164
jessewmc wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem in Vancouver is the house prices are not driven by economic activity in the city itself. Bay area and Manhattan prices are a product of the local economies. Vancouver prices are a product of speculation and wealthy people who live/have property there but don't work there.

Exactly this. A significant portion of the housing is being bought by foreign investors who don't even live here. Not only is it raising the pricing of the housing, but you don't get the economic benefit of said wealthy individuals living in the city. I recall reading an article about a local coffee shop. A number of new buildings were built around it, all residential condo's. The condo's in the buildings were comple…

A significant portion of the housing is being bought by foreign investors who don't even live here

What evidence is there that foreign ownership is a major problem? I've heard plenty of anecdotes, but no actual data. I do know that Vancouver real estate agents are milking the "yellow peril" for all it's worth. "Buy now before China owns all of Vancouver!". Don't forget there is a ton of speculation going on by Canadian citizens as well.

Suffice to say, Canadians are doing what American's did in the early 2000's. They are going into a crazy amount of debt to buy housing, which is only pushing prices up even higher. Some of the stats make Canada look even worse than the US did at it's peak[1].

[1]http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-c...

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#204

Post by refurb »

eigenvector wrote: post #192
smcl wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't answer that, but I can add that it is quite common in London too. I can see the allure of the "park my millions in property in the world financial capital" investment strategy, but I don't get the Vancouver version. That's not meant as a slight on Vancouver.

You can't buy a UK or US passport. You can buy a Canadian one. http://www.immigration.ca/en/immigration-wiki2/151-updates/7...

You don't get a passport, you get a Permanent Resident Card.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#205

Post by sandworm101 »

badloginagain wrote: post #196
sandworm101 wrote: post #175

Vancouver's problem isn't the house prices. The problem is to a large extent caused by the author of this piece, the Hootsuite CEO. The few tech companies in vancouver don't pay. They expect the city to provide them a steady flow of over-educated 20-somethings willing to work long hours for only slightly more than rent. For the last 15 years the city has provided just that. The complaints now are that those 20-someth…

> The few tech companies in vancouver don't pay. The tech companies in Vancouver haven't increased pay in step with skyrocketing housing. If you can find data on employee pay in the tech industry (good luck) you'd find it'd be fairly consistent. Compared to housing prices in Vancouver, you'd likely be looking at hockey stick growth. That's the disconnect. If Hootsuite paid minimum wage, but cost-to-live was free, the…

>>> Tech is only a small part, and fixing it for one small sector isn't going to do much on a macro scale.

Very convenient. Not attempting to fix a problem until everyone else is onboard is a great way of not doing anything. If tech companies want to retain talent, pay for it. Don't lambaste the city or the economy. There is nothing more hypocritical than a CEO of a profitable company complaining about retention. If you are profitable then you can afford to pay your people more. Complain about the city when you cannot find the people needed to make ends meet, not when they are inconveniently expensive.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#206

Post by yelnatz »

eigenvector wrote: post #160
lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #150

If having essentially no affordable housing rendered a city an economic ghost town, then much of the Bay area and Manhattan would be "ghost towns" - which, in turn, would lower housing prices radically. What might happen to Vancouver is probably similar to other major cities with housing crunches but an otherwise desirable economic climate: lower wage workers will be displaced further from the city and forced to comm…

The article's gist is that Vancouver lacks the "otherwise desirable economic climate" that makes the SFBA, Manhattan and London housing markets at least tolerable. Rather than being a side-effect of explosive economic growth as in SF, the housing prices are totally out-of-step with the local economy.

It's really painful.

Having average home price of $1.8m while the median salary is at $60k. Something really needs to be done to help out Vancouverites.

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#207

Post by rchaud »

eigenvector wrote: post #191
BurningFrog wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why do speculators choose Vancouver of all places to speculate in?

1. Now-defunct Canadian Immigrant Investor program allowed you to buy permanent resident status in Canada, thus avoiding any potential future tax discrimination against foreigners. Unlike the US Green Card, Canadian PR status is permanent, affords all the privileges of citizenship except voting, and can never be revoked, even if you join a foreign army to fight Canada. A similar incarnation of this program still exis…

>Canadian PR status is permanent.... and can never be revoked

That is incorrect. It can be revoked if the PR does not remain in Canada for at least 2 years of a 5 year period after it was issued. After the 5 year mark, most PRs have already transitioned to citizenship. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=727&...

Re: Without affordable housing, Vancouver risks becoming an economic ghost town

#208

Post by throwaway2048 »

refurb wrote: post #204
eigenvector wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't buy a UK or US passport. You can buy a Canadian one. http://www.immigration.ca/en/immigration-wiki2/151-updates/7...

You don't get a passport, you get a Permanent Resident Card.

Which then allows you to get a passport....
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