3510 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Pretty sure the RTA allows for evictions based on sale as well.

 

With proper notice, for sure.  But in a case like this, you'd need to be doing a substantial renovation (they were already renovated in 2015).

 

If I own a 40-unit apartment building, I can also evict tenants because I've decided to wind up operations, and simply no longer wish rent those 40 units.  But I need to give more than 30 days notice.

 

The whole thing could be a power play to get the zoning changed quicker, for a sale, who knows.

[spanky123]

Pretty sure the RTA allows for evictions based on sale as well.

 

Sure but it would cost a lot more than using the City as a crutch to evict based on bylaw infraction.

 

The City could and should play hardball with people who try these stunts. Not too hard to slowly bleed a developer dry making their properties unmarketable for an extended period of time. What everyone knows though is that the City won't do that because the people in the middle are the poor. Thus you get developers who play the chicken game knowing that they can make huge profits when the City buckles.

[VicHockeyFan]

CFAX now reports that the Vancouver owner has rescinded the eviction notices.  He spoke with CFAX but refused a taped interview.

[spanky123]

^ Good outcome. Sounds like Helps did exactly what I suggested and this is resolved for now.

[VicHockeyFan]

As the University of B.C. prepares to welcome 28 per cent of its first-year contingent as foreign students, Metro Vancouver’s universities, colleges and high schools are not the only things that are changing.

 

So is the city’s rental market, restaurant scene and transit congestion.   

 

B.C.’s advanced education minister, Andrew Wilkinson, has boasted this province now has more than 110,000 foreign students a year (roughly one third of the national total), the vast majority of whom settle in Metro Vancouver.

 

One recent sign of how the wave of foreign students has been altering the city is the construction crew that has been working late into the evening at UBC, to complete a massive complex for the beginning of classes in September.

 

 

Called Orchard Commons, the complex was designed predominantly for foreign students. It will provide a new home for Vantage College, created exclusively for about 350 full-fee-paying foreign students (also known as international students).

 

It also contains two 18-storey residential towers, which will be used to house roughly 500 domestic and 500 foreign students in their first year.

 

Foreign students fill almost half the 11,000 residence beds on the UBC-Vancouver campus, including in the first year, says UBC vice-provost Pam Ratner. There are not nearly enough rooms for all applying.

 

 

So foreign students take 28% of the school spots, but 50% of the housing.  Now, of course you'd expect it to be higher than 28% since many domestic students at UBC live at home or with family.

 

These figures from Metro’s two largest universities do not include the tens of thousands of foreign students who are registered at Langara College, Douglas College, Kwantlen Polytechnic, Capilano University and a host of private Metro Vancouver colleges.

 

Nor do these higher-education tallies touch on the thousands of foreign students who are increasingly enrolling in Metro secondary schools, from where, after Grade 12, most are transferring to B.C. colleges or universities.

 

 

 http://vancouversun....ct-on-vancouver

 

But this has to be the single largest reason for the rental housing "shortage".

[VicHockeyFan]

Now more than ever, parents and students from around the world are choosing B.C. as a top study destination. In fact, every year B.C. welcomes over 130,000 international students.

 

 

http://www2.gov.bc.c...ndary-education

[VicHockeyFan]

So that means that 1 in every 35 people in BC is a foreign student.  Not one in 35 students.  1 in 35 people.   And it's concentrated in the Lower Mainland and here.

 

Now, take the size of Victoria.  360,000, give or take.  Eliminate 1 out of 35 of them.  That's over 10,000 less people.  If we had 10,000 less renters, how would that affect our rental situation?  And the number is actually higher, as it's concentrated here, so more likely 15,000 less renters.

[Nparker]

...That's over 10,000 less people. if we had 10,000 less renters, how would that affect our rental situation?  And the number is actually higher, as it's concentrated here, so more likely 15,000 less renters.

http://www.quickandd...ss-versus-fewer

[VicHockeyFan]

http://www.quickandd...ss-versus-fewer

 

Alright, you have me there.  I hope you'll agree I'm not the worst grammar/spelling offender on here, I try.

[spanky123]

So that means that 1 in every 35 people in BC is a foreign student.  Not one in 35 students.  1 in 35 people.   And it's concentrated in the Lower Mainland and here.

 

Now, take the size of Victoria.  360,000, give or take.  Eliminate 1 out of 35 of them.  That's over 10,000 less people.  If we had 10,000 less renters, how would that affect our rental situation?  And the number is actually higher, as it's concentrated here, so more likely 15,000 less renters.

 

I thought that many of the Chinese students were having houses/condos purchased for them so they are technically not renting :-)

[Nparker]

Alright, you have me there.  I hope you'll agree I'm not the worst grammar/spelling offender on here...

Far from it. This was a very teachable moment.

 

I apologize for being a grammar nazi, but the less/fewer thing really gets my goat. 

Edited by Nparker, 27 November 2016 - 09:13 PM.

[VicHockeyFan]

I thought that many of the Chinese students were having houses/condos purchased for them so they are technically not renting :-)

 

Very few and far between.  But also consider every condo bought and occupied by a foreign student displaces a potential Canadian renter vs. if if the suite remained a revenue unit.

[VicHockeyFan]

http://www.saanichne.../403464446.html

 

Saanich’s decision to postpone the proposed redevelopment of an affordable housing complex has drawn sharp criticism from officials of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

 

Writing in the chamber’s weekly newsletter, chief executive officer Catherine Holt singled out Saanich council’s unanimous vote to postpone a public redevelopment of Townley Lodge as an example of “hemming and hawing on housing” by local municipal councils.

 

“Local business owners and leaders are increasingly concerned about the scarcity of affordable housing – private and subsidized – available to our workforce, particularly to those earning low to moderate incomes,” Holt writes. “Municipal processes must help us address the problem – not become part of it.”

 

Holt confirmed and expanded those comments in an interview.

 

Affordable housing tops the agenda of the chamber heading into 2017, she said.

 

 

http://www.saanichne.../403464446.html

[Nparker]

Affordable housing is the CRD's #1 priority!...just not in my back yard.

[SusanJones]

http://www.saanichne.../403464446.html

 

 

http://www.saanichne.../403464446.html

Not sure how politicians can reconcile affordable housing, with homeowners facing this:

http://www.iheartrad...taxes-1.2242795

....."The financial plan calls for property tax hikes as high as 16-per cent in Esquimalt and 14-per cent in Langford and Colwood, and as low as one-per cent in Oak Bay and three-per cent in Saanich and Victoria.

...."Board chair Barb Desjardins says the numbers vary so greatly because they depend on how each respective municipality has decided to pay for its share of the region's sewage treatment project."....

Brutal tax hikes that will crush seniors in-home and those with marginal incomes and own their homes.  

[Sparky]

^ It gets worse.

 

Canada is gaining popularity in the world as a sought after place to live. Victoria has always followed Vancouver and Toronto in terms of housing prices.

 

Hang on to your hat if this is any indication.

 

http://www.huffingto...n_13305154.html

[VicHockeyFan]

If we have (sort of) agreed that a lot of people would not mind tall buildings in Harris Green and the Douglas corridor, why can't we get some of the auto dealerships to make towers, where they can still have their lots and showrooms in the base?  

[spanky123]

^ It gets worse.

 

Canada is gaining popularity in the world as a sought after place to live. Victoria has always followed Vancouver and Toronto in terms of housing prices.

 

Hang on to your hat if this is any indication.

 

http://www.huffingto...n_13305154.html

 

If only 10% of Chinese and Indian millionaires decided to buy property in Vancouver or Victoria they could purchase every house or condo sold for the next 10 years.

[Mike K.]

5% loan help, up to a maximum of home value of $750,000, which equals a maximum loan of up to $37,500. Loans are interest and payment-free for five years, after which they can be fully repaid or paid over 20 years through monthly payments at current interest rates.

 

Of course, first you'll need to pass the new "stress test" to qualify.

 

B.C. government to offer down payment loans to first-time buyers

http://victoria.citi...st-time-buyers/

[spanky123]

So BC creates an artificial drop in market demand with the 15% land transfer tax and threats to tax people who don't live in their homes and the solution is to try and stimulate demand by loaning money to the people least likely to pay it back if we see any meaningful correction in prices. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

Lets encourage more people to overextend themselves. Even though we are now at record debt to income levels in Canada and 47% of people say that a 0.50% increase in interest rates will impact their ability to meet their obligations there must still be room to grow.