1003 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Colwood supports the tax.

 

https://www.goldstre...peculation-tax/

[Mike K.]

Ah, I thought I had heard something from Colwood.

Has Victoria made any official statements in regards to the tax?

[VicHockeyFan]

Class action lawsuit filed against BC over speculation tax

 

 

http://victoriabuzz....peculation-tax/

[LJ]

The new "expensive home" tax will affect over 1600 properties on the island and over 35,000 in the Greater Vancouver area.

An extra .2% on the value of a property valued at $3M, going up to .4% over $4M.

 

At least we know the NDP are supporting their base although David Eby's riding includes Point Gray where a large percent of the affected live.

[LeoVictoria]

The province collected the first $176,000 in foreign buyers tax in Victoria for the first deal that completed in April and was made after the Feb 20th deadline.   

This should further reduce foreign buyer numbers that are already down 35% year to date (mostly before the tax even hit).

 

I would guess they will collect about $1M in May, and $2.5M/month after that.

 

More info:  https://househuntvic...ax-in-victoria/

Edited by LeoVictoria, 28 May 2018 - 08:20 PM.

[rjag]

Was at the Town Hall meeting last night in Oak Bay where there was a forum/discussion on the Spec tax, school tax, vacancy tax etc initiated by this current government.

 

Scott Piercy from Engel and Volkers was one of the main organizers. 

 

The panel included Andrew Weaver, OB councillors, Tara Ney, Kevin Murdoch and Eric Zhelka as well as Scott Piercy.

 

Jim Beatty (past Leg. Reporter) ran the event.

 

Of course a meeting like this wouldn't be complete without the usual cadre of protesters organised by the one and only Ed Pullman railing against all these multi-millionaires complaining about wanting a piece of someones elses hard earned wealth...

 

Weaver did a very good job explaining why he is against these Taxes acknowledging the impact is too broad and affecting Canadians who own a vacation or future retirement home should not be impacted. He acknowledged the impact to the local economy and how it was targeting the wrong groups. He further acknowledged the fact that you cant expect someone on a fixed income who, through no fault of their own have had their house value increase and be expected to pay a tax on paper wealth not realised wealth. He gave several examples of why the NDP didnt think this through and stated that he does not support the taxes. 

 

 

 

Various statements were made by the other panel members. The consensus was that the challenge is 'how can we make homes affordable?'

 

Then it went to the floor for folks to make statements or ask questions.

 

 

Most of the statements were indicating the lack of housing supply, the long protracted delays by local governments in slowing and then diminishing projects. The failure of local government to keep up with working with growth forecast data and all the taxes associated with developments and the resultant final increased cost/ft passed on to the purchasor of a reduced in scope project. Too much interference from local neighbourhood associations and the willingness of local government to use them as a tool to manipulate projects.

 

Oak Bay councillors got an earful, they had to admit there is negative growth for years, that only 1 duplex has been allowed in 30 years and that with the pending closure of OB Lodge the negative growth will only exacerbate. Folks like Casey Edge and Stan Sipos and Ken Mariash all made similar statements.....Local Government is a primary driver in the current problems. Edge talked about reducing min lot sizes like James Bay where 3,000ft would still get a nice house or duplex as the primary driver for the increased costs was land value, so reduce the land size and the costs will reduce...etc

 

Mariash commented about how Pam Madoff told him in 1998 that it was going to be her mission in life to be a roadblock for all his Bayview projects. He blamed her for the increased costs of the projects simply through carrying costs for 2+ decades of so much land where she was slowing permitting etc and yet she keeps getting re-elected by the very folks who are whining about lack of housing and affordability. 

 

Surprise guest was Stu Young. He spoke very passionately for about 10 minutes and lambasted all local governments for their failure to approve permits in a reasonable time and all the other associated costs. He talked about how when he became Mayor 25 years ago that the CRD has several hundred illegal suites in Langford being raided and ticketed and the tenants kicked ouut. His first act as Mayor was to allow all suites and then he told the CRD to get the hell out of his municipality!!!

 

He talked about the uncertainty the NDP have created, the Westhill and Bear Mountain layoffs these past weeks, the cancellation of several major projects of housing under 400k. (I was talking with a developer friend at the meeting, he found out today that the bank pulled the funding of his 800 unit affordable housing project that he had spent 2 years working on solely due to the uncertainty, the statement from them was, we would love to fund your 800 units that are under $400k but by the time they are finished we forecast they will be worth $300k so we cant fully finance it)

 

The whole meeting went like this until some plaid shirted gumby got the microphone and basically said the rich need to pay more, the multi-millionaires need to share the wealth blah blah....it was like he wasnt listening, all the speakers on the floor were advocating for how to make things more affordable, to create more housing for families and young folks....but this idiot had his earplugs in and was determined to preach even though nobody had spoken about protecting their 'wealth' He did get under Weavers skin and Weaver ripped him a new one in front of the audience and received a long applause as a result. He basically said the guy was a fool and had no respect for what was being discussed here etc.

 

A few other speakers spoke about public banking funding public projects etc....all good ideas and they received applause from the audience for being there and making the effort to engage.

 

All in it was a good meeting even with the gumby and his immature foolish comments

Edited by rjag, 29 June 2018 - 07:19 AM.

[Mike K.]

Fantastic recap, rjag, thank you for that.

I didn’t realize Mariash owned the Bayview lands as far back as 1998. It would have been a decade later that construction actually started.

[rjag]

Fantastic recap, rjag, thank you for that.

I didn’t realize Mariash owned the Bayview lands as far back as 1998. It would have been a decade later that construction actually started.

 

You should contact Scott Piercy and see if he has a transcript of the night...or at the very least meet him for a coffee, he has some great insight

[spanky123]

Thanks for the update Rjag. 

 

Lets not fool ourselves by failing to acknowledge that many of the people who are leading the charge against the taxes have vested interests that have nothing to do with the message they are spouting.

 

I am not aware of much affordable housing at Bayview, but I can image that the taxes are having a significant impact on the buyers of the condos and reducing the prices that can be asked for unsold units. Similarly, I haven't seen too many luxury realtors focusing on selling affordable units anywhere but I can see that their sales to non resident buyers would be impacted.

 

I am against the taxes but I think that this approach just opens the doors to criticism. 

Edited by spanky123, 29 June 2018 - 07:31 AM.

[rjag]

Thanks for the update Rjag. 

 

Lets not fool ourselves by failing to acknowledge that many of the people who are leading the charge against the taxes have vested interests that have nothing to do with the message they are spouting.

 

I am not aware of much affordable housing at Bayview, but I can image that the taxes are having a significant impact on the buyers of the condos and reducing the prices that can be asked for unsold units. Similarly, I haven't seen too many luxury realtors focusing on selling affordable units anywhere but I can see that their sales to non resident buyers would be impacted.

 

I am against the taxes but I think that this approach just opens the doors to criticism. 

 

Mariash was saying that the original intent back in the late 90's was to develop approx 3,000 units of housing along that whole strip where the average price per unit throughout the whole project was below $400k ie some high end and offset by lower priced to arrive at the average

[spanky123]

Mariash was saying that the original intent back in the late 90's was to develop approx 3,000 units of housing along that whole strip where the average price per unit throughout the whole project was below $400k ie some high end and offset by lower priced to arrive at the average

 

That may have been the intent but not the result. I think that like many developers in the 90's and early 2000's, Mariash found that selling luxury condos to out of town residents was the most profitable option.

Edited by spanky123, 29 June 2018 - 07:57 AM.

[rjag]

That may have been the intent but not the result. I think that like many developers in the 90's and early 2000's, Mariash found that selling luxury condos to out of town residents was the most profitable option.

 

There is the issue about a council that created enough roadblocks that the strategy had to change.....perhaps place some focus on Madoff and her campaign against him and others like him. The end result is these guys have massive carrying costs holding onto empty land and at some point when you have stubborn councils you go back to the drawing board and put through what you can and get the cash flow going. We see examples of this time and again where a developer wants to add a 5th floor etc and make the whole floor affordable and folks like Madoff kill it and the result is 4 floors of high end housing

[m3m]

Thanks for the update Rjag. 

 

Lets not fool ourselves by failing to acknowledge that many of the people who are leading the charge against the taxes have vested interests that have nothing to do with the message they are spouting.

 

I am not aware of much affordable housing at Bayview, but I can image that the taxes are having a significant impact on the buyers of the condos and reducing the prices that can be asked for unsold units. Similarly, I haven't seen too many luxury realtors focusing on selling affordable units anywhere but I can see that their sales to non resident buyers would be impacted.

 

I am against the taxes but I think that this approach just opens the doors to criticism. 

 

Promontory was very affordable.  There was a good selection of studios and one bedroom units in the $200Ks. I purchased a one-bedroom with a great view for $245k+GST.   Even though some of these units were small, they were very livable and well thought out floorplans.  During my time at promontory, I met lots of young singles and couples who purchased their first homes there.  

Even Encore had a good selection of one bedrooms in the low $300Ks. 

 

Both with Promontory and Encore, I found that they were more affordable than the options from Chard and other developers available at the same time and had higher quality finishings and features. 

[Casual Kev]

Love that NIMBYs and fantasy leftists got grilled, thanks for reporting rjag. Too bad Young can't be cloned to be mayor of other municipalities.

[Bob Fugger]

Weaver did a very good job explaining why he is pretending to be against these Taxes acknowledging the impact is too broad and affecting Canadians who own a vacation or future retirement home should not be impacted.  He acknowledged the impact to the local economy and how it was targeting the wrong groups. He further acknowledged the fact that you cant expect someone on a fixed income who, through no fault of their own have had their house value increase and be expected to pay a tax on paper wealth not realised wealth. He gave several examples of why the NDP didnt think this through and stated that he does not support the taxes but not enough to bring down the Government.  Because PR referendum.

 

I hope you don't mind, I took some liberties with your recap to make it more accurate.  Weaver is the worst politician in a generation.  And I grew up with Vander Zalm.

Edited by Bob Fugger, 29 June 2018 - 06:41 PM.

[tjv]

Mariash was saying that the original intent back in the late 90's was to develop approx 3,000 units of housing along that whole strip where the average price per unit throughout the whole project was below $400k ie some high end and offset by lower priced to arrive at the average

Not sure if everyone remembers, but in the 90's you could get a nice house in Oak Bay for 400k.  Waterfront in the Uplands could be had for 900k

[rjag]

Not sure if everyone remembers, but in the 90's you could get a nice house in Oak Bay for 400k.  Waterfront in the Uplands could be had for 900k

 

We bought our 4bed 3bath home in North Oak Bay in 1998 for $280k, Mariash was correct.

[tjv]

Correct that he was going to build condos for 400k and under in Vic West?  Maybe its me, but I'll take a house in Oak Bay any day of the week in the 1990's over a condo in Vic West next a fully working rail freight yard with some freight trains arriving at midnight!

[LeoVictoria]

Foreign buyers tax is effective at reducing foreign buyers.  Not so much at collecting revenue.  

Foreign buyers down 89% in June, 93% based on sales volume.  

 

 

 

More info:   https://househuntvic...89-in-victoria/

[johnk]

Not sure if everyone remembers, but in the 90's you could get a nice house in Oak Bay for 400k.  Waterfront in the Uplands could be had for 900k

I got a wondeful house steps from OB Village for 295K in 1995.
Best purchase I ever made.