5833 replies to this topic

[MarkoJ]

I think it does change the equation.  I think if they standardized for 2-bedroom 800 sq/ft condo, 1,400 sq/ft row home, and 2,000 sq/ft home with double car garage with 5,000 sq/ft lot it would show that we are a lot more affordable than other part of the world.

[dasmo]

It's a meaningless study done so he can refer to it himself for his own ends in other endeavors.... Yes Victoria is expensive, Vancouver more but there are many other places more that are more affordable.  Like the places where the people that work there can't even live there.... 

[pherthyl]

I think it does change the equation. I think if they standardized for 2-bedroom 800 sq/ft condo, 1,400 sq/ft row home, and 2,000 sq/ft home with double car garage with 5,000 sq/ft lot it would show that we are a lot more affordable than other part of the world.

They use the housing that is typical for the region. Standardizing on housing that isn't the norm for a region would make the whole thing meaningless because it wouldn't reflect what people actually buy.

[Bingo]

Therefore building more rental accommodation that is affordable might be the answer for the Victoria area.

[lanforod]

Therefore building more rental accommodation that is affordable might be the answer for the Victoria area.

 

This doesn't factor in rentals.

[dasmo]

and when you can rent an 800k house for $2500 it changes the equation....

[dasmo]

South Africa comes to mind. Median salary of Cape Town: $10,668.02 USD average house price $699,915 USD

I have done work there. Labourers getting paid $5 a day. They can't live in the city they work in and have to be bused back and forth from their shanty towns which have their own economies. 

 

Edited by dasmo, 23 January 2015 - 04:07 PM.

[pherthyl]

Ah yes, the "eat your brussel sprouts there are kids starving in Africa" argument

Edited by pherthyl, 23 January 2015 - 04:25 PM.

[dasmo]

OK how about Monaco: Real Estate: $5,408 / sqft so $5,408,000 for a 1000sqft and an after tax salary of: $ 49,713. Lot's of people who work in the country of Monaco don't live there. They can't afford it....

Edited by dasmo, 23 January 2015 - 07:18 PM.

[pherthyl]

All excellent comparables

[dasmo]

We aren't talking about comparables. We are talking about the most unaffordable real estate in the world....

[pherthyl]

Do I really have to point out that locals ain't buying Monaco real estate?

[dasmo]

exactly... The locals can't afford it...

[lanforod]

Neither of those countries were in the study.

[Mike K.]

South Africa comes to mind. Median salary of Cape Town: $10,668.02 USD average house price $699,915 USD
I have done work there. Labourers getting paid $5 a day. They can't live in the city they work in and have to be bused back and forth from their shanty towns which have their own economies.

Surely the average is not that high, is it? When I was there beautiful homes were selling for $350k USD. A downtown loft could be picked up for $200k.

Real-estate there has certainly boomed over the last five years but it remains a very affordable place for folk like us. And cost of living is very low.

[dasmo]

Where were you? I was in Joberg and Pretoria 2007 ish. Cape Town has shot up past its pre 2009 peak. 2009 was a big valley.

[Mike K.]

Cape Town. I was looking for places on behalf of an acquaintance so I made note of prices. I was bewildered by how much house you could buy overlooking the ocean for $500k. But then you have to put up with the world's highest crime rate.

[MarkoJ]

I look at real estate affordability on a real life basis through family members scattered throughout Europe.  All the places I visit in Europe where I would actually want to live and then when I look at my families' professions (doctor, nurse, teacher, mechanic, etc.), their respective salaries, the cost of real estate in their respective town and than compare to Canada I come to the conclusion every single time that Canada is a lot more affordable.  

 

My cousin in Zagreb, Croatia is a phd chemist working for the national food inspection agency and her husband is a p.engineer for Siemens.  They barely got into a 600 sq/ft condo in Zagreb.  They still live in that 600 sq/ft condo with two kids now.  They are hoping that one day they can upgrade to a two bedroom.  Pretty sure in Victoria they could afford a single family home, a nice one at that.

 

When I look at places in Europe where I have family where real estate is cheap it is because I wouldn't want to live there.  This hit home for me a few years ago when I listed and sold a place in Crofton (60 minutes from Victoria) for about 1/3 of what an equivalent places would go in the Victoria core.  I wouldn't want to live in Crofton even at 1/3 of Victoria for this particular property.

 

Teachers feel they are underpaid, correct? Resulting in a long strike.  But still a two teacher salaries with a bit if savings disipline can get into a single family home in Victoria.  Not sure you can say that about many countries and their respective more desirable cities.

[pherthyl]

My cousin in Zagreb, Croatia is a phd chemist working for the national food inspection agency and her husband is a p.engineer for Siemens.  They barely got into a 600 sq/ft condo in Zagreb.  They still live in that 600 sq/ft condo with two kids now.  They are hoping that one day they can upgrade to a two bedroom. 

 

Assuming the stat is correct, home ownership rate in Croatia is almost 90%.    So apparently most people can manage to buy a home, and the condo being barely in reach of two highly paid professions in the capital is an anomaly (right downtown, on the water?).    

 

Edit:  Interesting thread on high home ownership rates in those countries: http://marginalrevol...ul-country.html

Edited by pherthyl, 24 January 2015 - 06:26 PM.

[Mike K.]

Looks like we had a very similar thread from five years ago.