3483 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Is the tax implication of a garden suite higher than the tax implication of a secondary suite within a primary residence?

 

Like does BC Assessment assess the 400 sq. ft. of a garden suite higher than 400 sq. ft. in a studio apartment (legal or not) within an SFD?

[spanky123]

But for the average homeowner they are more likely to have an in-law suite in their house as a 'mortgage helper' which is the preferred route to help pay the bills. A separate garden suite creates a whole bunch more paperwork and based on the last 5 years, the average resident isnt interested due to either the municipal obstacle course or the tax implications or both

 

In probably 80% of the cases the "mortgage helper" is not declared as income either.

[Victoria Watcher]

The ideal place to shove the garden suite is on corner lots.

 

 

Now your tenants do not have to traipse across your back yard. They just use the side street to park and enter.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 January 2022 - 05:26 PM.

[Mike K.]

Can't we just accommodate them in full-size homes somewhere on the remaining 30,000 square kilometers of Vancouver Island?

[Victoria Watcher]

Ever notice that all the cities in North America that have a "housing crisis"¹ are the ones where people want to move to, or buy a vacation home in?   The ones that do not have the crisis², are the ones with limited or no demand.

 

 

1.  LA, San Francisco, New York, Miami, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria

2.  Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Moose Jaw, Regina

 

 

So even if we were to build just say for example, somehow we were able to build 50,000 1-bedroom units here, for say $175,000 each.  Most everyone would say that's pretty affordable. 

 

And unless we put all kinds of restrictions on their purchase, they would sell out in just a few days or weeks.

 

I would even hazard a guess you'd need to build over 500,000 units, maybe even a million+ before you'd significantly suppress other housing values or see vacancies rise in rental housing.   

 

It really can't be done.  

 

Oh, sure we can subsidize a few "affordable" projects here and there, place 30 in this building, 20 over here, 14 here.  Even 200 in one condo tower, and they pay $40,000 less than market.  But we can never create any meaningful changes for most.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 January 2022 - 06:52 AM.

[Barrrister]

I suspect that the long term plan is to actually make Victoria much less desirable with more and more supportive housing and never ending densification. I really dont think we are serving the younger generations very well. 

[newbie_01]

You guys are on the wrong website then, sprawlingsooke.ca may be more to your liking. There's even pavedoverportalice.ca and subdividedstrathcona.ca for those looking for the best combination of mountainous terrain and streached-thin community services.

[rjag]

You guys are on the wrong website then, sprawlingsooke.ca may be more to your liking. There's even pavedoverportalice.ca and subdividedstrathcona.ca for those looking for the best combination of mountainous terrain and streached-thin community services.

 

such meaningful contribution to the subject.

 

surprised you forgot SFHKKK.CA

[newbie_01]

hey man if that's your thing? I was just attempting to make light of the site admin advocating for opening up the hinterland for development rather than continuing development in the city that this website is named for.

[Mike K.]

hey man if that's your thing? I was just attempting to make light of the site admin advocating for opening up the hinterland for development rather than continuing development in the city that this website is named for.

Why can’t we do both?

[Victoria Watcher]

hey man if that's your thing? I was just attempting to make light of the site admin advocating for opening up the hinterland for development rather than continuing development in the city that this website is named for.

 

sprawlingsooke.ca

pavedoverportalice.ca

subdividedstrathcona.ca

 

 

[Banksy]

You guys are on the wrong website then, sprawlingsooke.ca may be more to your liking. There's even pavedoverportalice.ca and subdividedstrathcona.ca for those looking for the best combination of mountainous terrain and streached-thin community services.

Victoria may not be very vibrant without all the suburbanites working and recreating here.

Try not to bite the hand that feeds us.

[LJ]

We should do what China does, build new cities.

[kitty surprise]

Good grief, Canada is the 2nd largest country on Earth.

Create a new community where land is plentiful and cheap - lots of options.

Victoria is constrained by water on 3 sides and prohibitively expensive real estate.

Housing advocates know the above realities, so what do they have to gain by being wilfully blind to better options?

[Mike K.]

Not everyone has to live in Saanich, that lives in Saanich. Plenty of people would rather be outside of the urban containment boundary, if they had the option to move.

Just look at the explosion in value in semi-rural properties since 2020. Demand is massive in our region, but supply is ultra tight.

[Victoria Watcher]

We should do what China does, build new cities.

We really should. Imagine a master planned city built for todays realities.

[Daveyboy]

We really should. Imagine a master planned city built for todays realities.

I think it would depend a huge amount on who had the input on the planning.  Imagine Lisa Helps master planned city.......

Edited by Daveyboy, 31 January 2022 - 08:47 AM.

[Mike K.]

You guys are on the wrong website then, sprawlingsooke.ca may be more to your liking. There's even pavedoverportalice.ca and subdividedstrathcona.ca for those looking for the best combination of mountainous terrain and streached-thin community services.

 

What sorts of community services do you think people require on a daily basis?

 

And what is your thought on two lots for sale in Cordova Bay, roughly half an acre in size collectively, for $3 million, vs. $2.5 million for 68-acres of developable land for sale in East Sooke? Both are active listings on MLS right now.

 

If you can afford to pay $1.5 million for 1/4 of an acre in Cordova Bay you're one of the fortunate few. Good for you.

 

But the rest of us (most of us) are more likely to be able to afford a portion of that 68-acres in East Sooke, on which to build a home. Why is that so wrong, in your opinion?

[Mike K.]

It turns out the hysteria over empty homes in Canada was a misinterpretation of dwelling occupancy data. Perhaps purposefully, perhaps negligently. But that didn’t stop the mainstream media from picking up the colossal misinformation campaign and turning it into what Canadians were lead to believe was not a sensational news narrative:

The reason many believe in the fable that more than a million homes are lying vacant in Canada is a cavalier interpretation of Statistics Canada data. To get to the origins of the exaggerated assertions, we reverted to the primary source of the claim, which is a report distributed by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report suggested that around eight per cent of the housing stock in Canada was vacant, or more than 1.3 million “vacant dwellings.”

The OECD vacancy estimates sparked subsequent news media accounts that this was causing affordability to worsen. The OECD reportedly sourced data from the Canadian government and pointed to a Canadian data portal, CensusMapper , as the source of vacant dwelling data.

The CensusMapper data is essentially sourced directly from Statistics Canada. But a quick look at the data portal reveals that some well-meaning individuals erroneously confused unoccupied dwellings with vacant dwellings, thus contributing to the widely exaggerated estimates of empty homes despite the posted caveats.
…
The myth of a million or more vacant homes or empty bedrooms are nothing but smokescreens. A prudent way forward for the federal Liberals is to ignore supply skepticism and focus on building millions of new homes in a short period of time to address the housing deficit that has accumulated over decades.

- https://financialpos...re-vacant-homes

[Mattjvd]

It turns out the hysteria over empty homes in Canada was a misinterpretation of dwelling occupancy data. Perhaps purposefully, perhaps negligently. But that didn’t stop the mainstream media from picking up the colossal misinformation campaign and turning it into what Canadians were lead to believe was not a sensational news narrative:

- https://financialpos...re-vacant-homes

The youtube channel "Oh the Urbanity" has a good video on the subject. Basicly says the same thing; we don't have a vacant home crisis and we don't have a supply crunch because of speculation. We have speculation because supply is constrained.