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High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

vancourier.com

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Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#31

Post by victorelu »

Patrick_Devine wrote: post #14
tspike wrote: post #5

This is great news and may serve as a model for other cities facing similar housing shortages. Was the speculation tax a ballot measure or something passed at the city council level?

It's hard to draw direct comparisons between Vancouver and San Francisco's housing markets. Canada, as well as each of the provinces, local municipalities, and cities, have representational democracy, not a quasi-direct democracy like California. The spike in affordability in Vancouver wasn't caused directly due to a shortage in housing stock and an influx of residents. It was caused by rampant speculation from peopl…

I think that’s one of the reasons Amsterdam has an anti-squatting law which basically forces owners that don’t live at home for a certain period in a year to rent it.

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#33

Post by TomVDB »

joncrane wrote: post #25
Patrick_Devine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to draw direct comparisons between Vancouver and San Francisco's housing markets. Canada, as well as each of the provinces, local municipalities, and cities, have representational democracy, not a quasi-direct democracy like California. The spike in affordability in Vancouver wasn't caused directly due to a shortage in housing stock and an influx of residents. It was caused by rampant speculation from peopl…

Wait, people were treating real estate in Vancouver like putting their money in the stock market? And on top of that, there were lots of real estate investors who weren't even trying to keep their places occupied? Isn't that super irresponsible investing?

For the longest time, it was very profitable investing.

It’s not less irresponsible than buying Tesla stock.

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#34

Post by goatherders »

jimrandomh wrote: post #11
goatherders wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the city has been adding different things for the last couple years trying to open up more rentals. If I recall correctly something like 25% of all condos downtown are unoccupied which is insane. They arent even available to rent, just sitting their empty. It has had a real effect on employment, especially in tech. A friend of mine at hootsuite laments that sometimes they miss on great hires because even th…

> If I recall correctly something like 25% of all condos downtown are unoccupied which is insane. They arent even available to rent, just sitting their empty. You do not recall correctly. https://www.reuters.com/article/canada-housing-vancouver/nea...

Thanks, always nice to get a downvote when someone corrects a data point. And your link cites the whole area, not downtown. But thanks anyway.

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#35

Post by Finnucane »

meritt wrote: post #16

> A $3 million house that would have rented for $5,000 a year ago $5k/mo for a $3M home is a cap rate of just 2%. That's pretty terrible in itself. Now it's $4k/mo or 1.6%? How on earth is that financially sustainable at either amount?

These houses weren’t purchased to rent out. They were safe deposit boxes for cash. The expectations were that they would just keep going up in value. Their rent value didn’t matter.

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#36

Post by DelaneyM »

victorelu wrote: post #31
Patrick_Devine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to draw direct comparisons between Vancouver and San Francisco's housing markets. Canada, as well as each of the provinces, local municipalities, and cities, have representational democracy, not a quasi-direct democracy like California. The spike in affordability in Vancouver wasn't caused directly due to a shortage in housing stock and an influx of residents. It was caused by rampant speculation from peopl…

I think that’s one of the reasons Amsterdam has an anti-squatting law which basically forces owners that don’t live at home for a certain period in a year to rent it.

So does Vancouver.

https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/empty-homes-t...

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#37

Post by YokoZar »

darawk wrote: post #26
crazypyro wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about Canada, but I know in many places in America, schools are budgeted on a per student basis, so losing kids (who still are going to school, just somewhere else) strains the school they are leaving with less money and then strains the schools where they are migrating to as the infrastructure now has to support more kids without having time to ramp up. So I think the problem kind of goes both ways.

In America, schools are also funded by property tax, though.

Not universally. In California, for instance, by law half of the state budget must go to education regardless of source.

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#38

Post by Tiktaalik »

meritt wrote: post #16

> A $3 million house that would have rented for $5,000 a year ago $5k/mo for a $3M home is a cap rate of just 2%. That's pretty terrible in itself. Now it's $4k/mo or 1.6%? How on earth is that financially sustainable at either amount?

It's not which is why many think these houses were bought not to rent out at all, but at inflated costs to park capital or launder money.

Now that there's a tax on empty housing and an upcoming speculation tax persons the carrying costs on empty homes is high enough that some are clearly looking to get out of their investment.

Re: High-end house rents in Vancouver plunge up to 20% as inventory spikes: experts

#40

Post by Tiktaalik »

projectramo wrote: post #32

Two questions that seem to be answered but aren’t quite: 1. So was the theory that the housing price spike was driven by foreign buyers who didn’t occupy their homes accurate? 2. So did the speculation tax work?

Speculation tax hasn't even been implemented yet. We're seeing a 20% drop due a basket of measures such as CoV empty homes tax, airbnb regulations, provincial increased school tax on homes over $5M and a fear of the upcoming speculation tax.
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