Alice Thompson in the Vancouver Sun 25 Jan 2011 11:01am -
“For 23 years I have lived in West Point Grey, 3 blocks above Spanish Banks. Over the years our neighbours have been fairly affluent families with 2 working professional parents. The children went to local schools and played in the lanes We all knew each other. The children have grown and the parents are planning retirement over the next 5-10 years.
Around us, within 1 block, there is constant turnover of property and construction. The homes are frequently bought with cash offers, torn down and reconstructed, very often never lived in as far as I can tell. The owners live elsewhere. One buyer bought 3 lots on Belmont and is building a massive “home”. Within half a block there is a development with 22 bathrooms and 3 indoor pools.
Every Thursday at least one flight arrives from overseas full of potential buyers. They are met by a team of realtors and lawyers and they are given a tour of the “best neighbourhoods and the best schools”. I’ve heard 40% make a purchase.
This activity benefits realtors, lawyers, city coffers and people in every area of construction. In the process a vibrant neighbourhood is destroyed.”
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Latest Anecdotes:
- “The bank encouraged her to take the equity in her home to purchase another home. She bought a 2nd home at the peak.”
- “Let’s remember how we got here” – Looser and Looser CMHC Limits
- Don’t Worry, I’m Sure Somebody Will Sort This All Out – “Policymakers now know better and will be a lot more proactive in preventing a collapse.”
- “Things have changed, we are not doing that type of mortgage. We are not interested at all.”
- “We are noticing our target type of housing in price decline, albeit slow, as our money increases in value, slowly as well but outpacing housing.”
- Renter Buys In West Van – “For a few hundred more per month, you could own the place. Which is what I will be doing as my offer for a place down the street has been accepted. There is some value in staying in one place.”
- A Bed in the Bathroom, Why Not? [Let Us Count The Reasons...]
- “My husband and kids are pretty happy in our rental house within cycling distance of work that we could never have afforded otherwise. We’re doin’ pretty dang well, thank you, for median income earners in this expensive city.”
- “I Wish Them Bad Luck.” – Jim Flaherty, on those who wish to profit from Canadian RE price drops
- “We asked why he doesn’t just rent the whole house. He said he can’t, it wouldn’t cover his mortgage – he’ll get more to rent it out as two suites. These new landlords are hilarious, thinking that rent will cover their mortgage!”
- “My neighbours, in their late 60s, just put their house on the market. They had said they would die in that house, but now they are worried that with the housing market going south they may be losing a lot of equity and they better sell now before it gets worse.”
- Chat Thread
- Taking A Break
- “My best guess: this property is now an ‘investment hold’ and will be built ‘when prices recover’. Good luck on that!”
- Man Loses $745,000 Vancouver Condo Deposit
- Graphic – Degrees of Housing Overvaluation in Canada
- The Rare Individual With A Negative Ownership Premium
- Advice Regarding Renting In Vancouver, Please – “Unfortunately, the Vancouver rental stock is absolutely atrocious. It just seems like every landlord is looking for someone to pay 100% of their mortgage on a crappy place through rental income.”
- “I just visited Manhattan for a week, and happened to snap some real estate ads on both the Upper West and Upper East sides of the island. Compare to Vancouver. It simply doesn’t compute.”
- Ben Rabidoux In Vancouver Next Week
- “The mortgage company told me they were calling in my 40-year, 0-down mortgage. I have paid nearly sixty thousand dollars towards it, but, nearly five years in, I have yet to touch the principal.”
- ‘Vancouver City Hall: Housing Report Card 2012′; Plus Revised Version
- “My folks find themselves at 65 still owing half the value of their home and recreation property to the bank. After almost 30 years of ownership in the BPOE and a number of boom markets, they have very little to show for it.”
- “Rent for $2,200 a month or buy and have a mortgage of $4,310 per month. Why would anyone buy?”
- “They were talking about two couples they knew who had recently bought a lot and planned to each build a house on it and live as neighbours.”
- Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association Annual First-Time Buyer Seminar Attendance Plummets
- Mom and Pop Get It Wrong In All Markets, Time And Again
- The average British Columbian homeowner is not going to pay off their mortgage by the time they retire.
- “He’s sold all his properties except his current one, which is now for sale. He explained that the market’s currently in crash mode, worst that he’s ever seen.”
- “One of my old high school buddies finally got her mother to sell the family home in Kitsilano – sold for over $1M, monies realized after debt paid off $185K.”
- “I know someone who just declared bankruptcy because her condo was assessed at $150k and she bought it presale north of $250k in 2005 or 2006.”
- Sturdy, With Views – “Calling Froogle Scott!… Is Dr. Scott ‘In The House’?” [Not In This One, Certainly]
- “She said the market was dead in Victoria and that it would remain so for a very long time. I asked how she knew. Her answer was fascinating and should scare the pants off the real estate crowd.”
- Kits Notes – “I’m pretty sure that this is the first 3+ bedroom property of any type that I’ve seen in the 5 years I’ve lived here that is priced below $700K.”
- “A beautiful Belfast home, in the equivalent of 1st Shaughnessy, bought at their RE peak in 2007 for £3.5 million, has now sold for £800K, almost 80%-off. The market didn’t suffer any significant economic shocks. Rates & unemployment didn’t skyrocket. They didn’t build more land. Sentiment just changed and the prices fell and fell.”
- “Two family members of hers are trapped, underwater, in condos on the East Side.”
- “Interprovincial migration is not saying good things about BC’s economy.”
- Vancouver RE: Not As Expensive Provided You Don’t Think – “It’s clear that our perception of affordability has been coloured by living on a continent where housing is unusually inexpensive.”
- More Undisclosed RE Industry Insiders Publicized As Clients – “In 1995, Allan and Karin Hoegg were mortgage-free. But no more. Today their Vancouver home is a valuable source of income as they plan for full retirement.”
- Rumor that some OV units will be reduced by 20%.
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I think the next anecdote will be that rich asians are rappelling down at night from black helicopters with duffle bags of cash, signing a few docs and then zooming away in jet packs.
I’d love to check out those three indoor pools. Judging by google earth, the biggest estate in that area is the one owned by the EA guy on Drummond Drive. He appears to have a polo field or something. I think Lululemon guy is also building a huge place, so maybe he has the pools…
hahaha
There actually is no shortage of anecdotes that amount to “rich asians are rappelling down at night from black helicopters with duffle bags of cash, signing a few docs and then zooming away in jet packs”, but we’re trying to keep it vaguely balanced here.
There has been a massive surge in ‘hot foreign money’ discussion on the Vancouver RE blogs. It’s at the very least important from the point of view of sentiment; it’s what folks are talking about at this point in the bubble.
Ah, if the anecdotes are indeed increasing then it’s a sure sign that the end game has begun.
All aboard, fasten your seat belts, we’re about to take off.
“I buy three and my husband gonna buy three.”
She’s not wearing a jet pack, but I think this video is evidence in support of the rich asians hypothesis.
OK, there are no jet packs, but this is pretty darn close:
http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/index.html?releasePID=TByL1XvOOZeF8xSkn0t6om7tjGltNubQ
Do you still dismiss the “hot foreign money” as just sentiment? It seems pretty real to me.
Bring them on!! Greater fools are always welcome.
I get just about strip searched when I come back from Hawaii, and these Triad members come in with bank drafts and suitcases full of money. The Casinos and te scraxth and win tickt scam, washes the xri inals cash, while the stoopid taxpayer has our home, Universities and neighborhoods populated by these punks. They call us Gwailo and look down their nose at us.
One of the main reasons our City has been turned into Shanghai Jr, and I detest it.
The Chinese have destroyed their vast country, a polluted, smelly, and a consumer mad wasteland, has been left in their wake.
I am truly an egalatarian, and not racist, but I don’t want our Society pillaged by the cretinous mob of money waving lunatics.
They will get theirs. Vancouver is an overpriced RE market that will crush these egotistical, status seeking, jerks. Gung hay this!
Sadly, Canada needs $$ to maintain the high standard of living of her people. If Canada is as productive as Germany, Japan or, heaven forbid, China, then she could have total control over her destiny while maintaining first world living standards.
As the Chinese saying goes: Pride comes from not being in need.
A land endowed with rich natural resources has nobody but its own people to blame for not making the most out if its natural advantage.
Canada is in for the quick buck. That means you drag stuff out of the ground and then ship it off.
Canada COULD be extremely rich, if people would be willing to:
a.) pay for the goods.
b.) have goods made here.
The reality though is that most people think manual labour is beneath them and that everybody should make money as a “star social media” type or “photographer” or “computer geek” etc. Or by selling us stuff we don’t really need.
took a jog by Olympic village last night and all the lights were on in the expensive properties. First time ive seen that, it was really odd. Its normally a full on blackout. First thing I thought, they’re making it look good for a busload of asians.
Its odd how the three cites with the highest housing costs are Sydney, Vancouver and Hong Kong. Apparently Sydney has lots of Asian investors too. At the same time Australia and Canada sell a lot of resources to China.
Face it, we’re not crashing until China does,,, “good news”, they are way overdue for a massive f**kup.
On the other end of the spectrum.
Chatting with my high school friend. His girlfriend bought presale at a condo in richmond, starts with the letter P, apparently her dad works for the developer so they got a good deal.
They bought 70k down on 1 br with big patio deck for 325, actually not much of a deal considering her dad works for the developer.
Anyways fast forward to before completion they put it on the market for 380 no takers. Then they are not allowed to sell for a year so they rent it out posted on craigslist for 1500. Got 1200 from a Taiwanese brother and sister.
Mortgage strata and property tax per month around 1100 on unusually low VRM, they have already seen the couple of interest increases late last year.
So they are barely breaking even.
Today tells me the tenants are leaving, couple months short of the 1 year term, so they are paying out the agreement penalty, apparently she got married.
So now they have to wait till March before they can sell due to some rule by the developer. They plan to list for 400k. If no takers, reduce to 350 or 340.
They would be lucky to get what they paid for it minus all the taxes, strata and being illiquid for two years.
Their goal now, to make 10k, thats alot of time and risk to make 10k.
If foreigners want to pay outrageously inflated prices at this point, I think that’s great. Any Canadians who overpaid are a sunk cost. As long as these foreigners are dominating the market and paying in cash, it is a net benefit to our economy. The people worried about “neighbourhoods being destroyed” need to get a clue. THAT ALREADY HAPPENED. It’s in the past. Take the money.
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