90 replies to this topic

[jonny]

Which is?

 

Among others, I'm sure, but some of the key reason are:

1. Ultra low interest rates.

2. Growing comfort with indebtedness.

3. A relatively strong, stable economy.

 

Interestingly, house prices in Canada and the US used to track each other rather closely. Since the most recent bubble burst in the US, American housing values have gone down for the most part while Canadian values have continued to rise.

Edited by jonny, 02 June 2015 - 07:55 AM.

[jonny]

I just happen to be on a bus in Quebec as I write this. This is not the Canada we know out west. You'd better be prepared to be a second class citizen if you don't speak French. Heck, even bus drivers on the Ottawa side wished me luck when I was transferring onto the Gatineau system without a lick of French.

Notice how the signs on public transit are in one language in a multilingual nation?

IMAG3324.jpg

 

Quebec is a strange beast.

 

They have managed to maintain the French language in a continent (and world, really) dominated by English through brute force, harassment and intimidation.

 

We have already seen the start of the demise of Quebec and Montreal. Is there any political will to stop it?

[GabriolaGirl]

Here is a nifty little group that is putting out warnings about Asians and real estate in Nanaimo.

 

https://puttingcanad...anaimo-forever/

 

I want to "unlike" this.    Here on Gabriola we have had 3 businesses sold in the last year to Asians & I have heard some not very tolerent comments.  Funny how we can put up with lots of strange people here on the island, but 3 families of hard working people are the fodder of intolerent conversation.  I've only met one of the new owners, he is very pleasant, wants to fit into the community & is keeping most of the old owners traditions going even though they don't make any $ & he has hired locals to renovate & clean up the business. 

[Sparky]

^ I was being sarcastic. I agree with you for "unliking" this group's agenda.

[LJ]

Most things here in BC are English only, to be fair. Just larger government stuff that has both.

Unless you go to Richmond, then there is neither official language being displayed.

 

And I don't have a problem with that, If the owner of a company puts his signs up in whatever language he wants, he knows who his target audience is, and it is not me.

[lanforod]

Report from the BCREA: http://www.bcrea.bc....rt.pdf?sfvrsn=2

 

TLDR: Foreign investment accounts for less than 5% of the market in Metro Vancouver.

[pherthyl]

Report from the BCREA: http://www.bcrea.bc....rt.pdf?sfvrsn=2

TLDR: Foreign investment accounts for less than 5% of the market in Metro Vancouver.

If true it corroborates the VREB numbers that it's only a couple percent of Victoria transactions as well.

[Daveyboy]

It's strange how many people I have talked to actually believe that our high prices in Victoria and the Lower Mainland are a result of foreign buyers.  Is it just plain old xenophobia or a blame game when the evidence seems to point to a very miniscule role by international purchasers?

[adios55]

It's strange how many people I have talked to actually believe that our high prices in Victoria and the Lower Mainland are a result of foreign buyers.  Is it just plain old xenophobia or a blame game when the evidence seems to point to a very miniscule role by international purchasers?

 

Are you kidding?  Perhaps not Victoria, but it's patently obvious in Vancouver that foreign capital (read - not foreigners) has hyper-inflated the market.  It is virtually a guarantee the market would be in free-fall if the province were to restrict foreign earned income from purchasing real estate (which it should - the local economy should dictate what it takes to live in a home).  Never in history of this country has there been such a metaphysical detachment between the average income and average price for a detached home. 

[lanforod]

Are you kidding?  Perhaps not Victoria, but it's patently obvious in Vancouver that foreign capital (read - not foreigners) has hyper-inflated the market.  It is virtually a guarantee the market would be in free-fall if the province were to restrict foreign earned income from purchasing real estate (which it should - the local economy should dictate what it takes to live in a home).  Never in history of this country has there been such a metaphysical detachment between the average income and average price for a detached home. 

I think flush boomers are having more of an effect than foreign capital.

[gumgum]

I highly recommend listening to the latest "Canadaland" podcast with Jessie Brown, titled "Hongcouver". Brown interview South China Post's Vancouver correspondent Ian Young. It's a very insightful 30 minute interview where they touch on wealth migration, immigration schemes and Vancouver's housing market.

[insanelydeadlydisease]

It's strange how many people I have talked to actually believe that our high prices in Victoria and the Lower Mainland are a result of foreign buyers.  Is it just plain old xenophobia or a blame game when the evidence seems to point to a very miniscule role by international purchasers?

Realtors constantly feed foreign buyer stories to the press and they dutifully parrot it. 

[gumgum]

After listening to that podcast I posted I realized that this goes well beyond xenophobia. It appears the system is broken....

 

Exclusive: Chinese millionaires appear to be deserting Quebec's immigrant investor scheme

Quote

[...]New developments in the Quebec Immigrant Investor Programme (QIIP) - long one of the world’s most popular wealth migration vehicles - suggest rich Chinese are deserting the scheme which has brought thousands of mainland millionaires to Canada, most of whom end up to living instead in faraway Vancouver via an immigration loophole.[...]

 

 

Bogus ‘analysis’ obscures the role of foreign money in Vancouver’s runaway housing market

Quote

[...]If there’s one thing that should unite both sides of Vancouver’s debate about housing affordability and the role of foreign money in the real estate market, it’s the need for more data.

But apparently not everyone agrees. British Columbia’s housing minister, Rich Coleman, dismissed the idea of even tracking foreign ownership (let alone curtailing it) when it was raised in the provincial legislature last month. Housing prices in BC’s lower mainland were “pretty reasonable”, he helpfully added. Jaws were dropped. Eyebrows were raised.

Coleman’s boss, Premier Christy Clark, then weighed in. In a June 4 letter  to Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson, in which she hosed down his requests for a speculation tax, Clark cited a new BC Ministry of Finance analysis on foreign ownership.

That analysis, in turn, cited estimates that “foreign buyers” likely make up “less than 5 per cent of home sales activity in Greater Vancouver”.

If there’s a shortage of data, where did this swift and comforting estimate come from?

As usual in Vancouver, all roads lead to the real estate industry. [...]

 

 

These were written by a non-Canadian with a Hong Kong citizenship.

[Mike K.]

Thanks for those links. That's some good stuff.

[gumgum]

There's a whole lot more.

[johnk]

Asians got a rough ride many years ago when they were on the bottom. Now they are higher up the economic ladder, SOS. Always handy to have a visible scapegoat.
The real culprit is ridiculously cheap money and the accompanying myth that real estate only rises in value.

[gumgum]

If you had read at least one of the articles I had posted you would have established it's not about "Asians", which doesn't even mean anything btw. It's a small number super rich of people from China, manipulating the system here in Canada. Canada is clearly in the business of selling passports at the worst. At best our government is completely out to lunch. 

As I stated before the writer is a citizen of Hong Kong. He is not anti "asian", and has no anti-immigration axe to grind. His articles are the most informative on the subject I have ever read.

[adios55]

Realtors constantly feed foreign buyer stories to the press and they dutifully parrot it. 

Yes, because realtors stand to make a killing off of creating an atmosphere of xenophobia....(face palm)

 

Alas, I suppose you don't have any trouble with your income taxes subsidizing "poverty stricken" millionaire migrants who live in million dollar homes paid in cash:

 

http://www.vancouver...6169/story.html

 

44,000 millionaire migrant and their families immigrated to the Lower Mainland between 2004-2014, the vast majority of which claim "poverty" because their income is not reported in Canada, and thus receive cash income assistance.  Millionaires who do not pay income tax in this country receiving cash income assistance from the government.  Think about that for a minute.   

 

Your tax dollars at work. Is anybody OK with this?  

Edited by adios55, 16 June 2015 - 07:09 PM.

[lanforod]

Yes, because realtors stand to make a killing off of creating an atmosphere of xenophobia....(face palm)

 

Alas, I suppose you don't have any trouble with your income taxes subsidizing "poverty stricken" millionaire migrants who live in million dollar homes paid in cash:

 

http://www.vancouver...6169/story.html

 

44,000 millionaire migrant and their families immigrated to the Lower Mainland between 2004-2014, the vast majority of which claim "poverty" because their income is not reported in Canada, and thus receive cash income assistance.  Millionaires who do not pay income tax in this country receiving cash income assistance from the government.  Think about that for a minute.   

 

Your tax dollars at work. Is anybody OK with this?  

 

One reason why the government has scaled back the immigration program. Also why they've given the CRA more money - to investigate stuff like this.

[johnk]

Most things here in BC are English only, to be fair. Just larger government stuff that has both.

Federal stuff has to be in both. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province so provincial info and services are in both.
In Quebec provincial info/forms etc are provided in English, just tick a box. Service in English is provided in person as well in provincial facilities. Imperfect English but certainly as good as the French offered in most other parts of Canada. Private businesses can have signage in both but the French script must be larger. No big deal, it just recognizes 90% of the population is Francophone.