Van Renter at vancouvercondo.info 31 May 2010 9:39 am -
“I was showing a couple of friends from London England around Vancouver during the weekend and they were shocked by the condo prices in Vancouver. They had recently purchased a two bedroom condo for their daughter in a upscale area close to the upcoming Olympic [venue] in London for basically half the price as Vancouver.”
You have to factor in the exchange rate, which is at around 1 Pound = .65 Canadian. That will pretty much account for the difference.
However, London >>>>>>> Vancouver, so your general point is still spot on.
Christine -> I suspect that the couple had already taken exchange into account. Regardless, the point is the same: Vancouver is more overpriced than London.
They’re comparing ONE condo, in a not particular desirable area of East London, with things they saw “around Vancouver”. I realise this is an anecdotal website, but to conclude that Vancouver is more overpriced than London based on these vague comments is absolutely insane.
Van Renter have asked them why they bought in this area (a mere 40 minutes by underground from the city center, on a good day, in 40 degree heat, crushing overcrowding, and never-ending “signal failures” causing delays) rather than somewhere a little more central.
Christine was spot on – had the xchange rate been closer to $2.35 to the pound, as it was only a couple of years ago, then I’m sure these people would have found Vancouver to be a bargain.
Anon-> thanks for the comment.
a) – My comment regarding Vancouver being ‘more overpriced than London’ comes across as flippant, I admit. I should clarify: It is not based on this anecdote alone (which would be somewhat insane, granted) but on fundamental analysis, largely price:rent ratios. So I should have pointed that out and said ‘relatively overpriced’. The same holds, BTW for Manhattan, where price:rent ratios are now far less preposterous than those in Vancouver.
b) – The loonie:pound rate is what it is, not what it was 2 years ago. So the couple’s observation holds. Ironically, the loonie may very well be stronger at this point because our housing bubble has given Canada a false appearance of economic robustness. Witness recent analyses showing that the lion’s share of our apparent growth is directly related to housing.
Exchange Rate doesn’t matter. On average when it comes to income of anybody employed you can almost always presume 1:1 (read, if you make 1 CAN$ here, you’d make 1 pound there).
We just moved here from London a year and a half ago, where we still own a 1-bed flat. It’s worth £~310k , which is about $500,000 at today’s exchange rates. It has a huge garden and is in Highgate, a very nice area 20 minutes or less by tube to the city center.
We can’t afford a comparable place here…. for half a mil, you’re not going to get anything like it. We are thinking of going back to London where housing is more affordable.
You can’t find a 1 bedroom apartment for $500K, 20 minutes out from downtown Vancouver?
Was your garden Hampstead Heath!?