Ali at vancouvercondo.info 8 July 2011 9:10am -
“I came to Canada 16 years ago. We emigrated from the Middle East. The process was very long and difficult. We had to have every document translated, and go thorough a couple of interviews. The officer asked us about exactly where our money (which was small) came from, what languages we spoke- he was impressed my wife was fluent in French, asked why we wanted to come to Canada
When we got the visa, we felt like winning a lottery, we were so happy. It took me a long time to get going here, I took any jobs and worked for up-dating my technical skills and English. Finally I got a good job and after a few years I started my own small tech company. It is over ten years now. I have four full-time employees- 2 Canadian (many generations), 1 Serbian man, and 1 Chinese lady and a few contract people too. I am proud that I am helping give four families good incomes, and that we do 80% of our work here, but 60% of business is from outside Canada. Also I am very grateful to Canada for this opportunity.
What has this [to do] with real estate? A lot. I still live in a very small town-house with two children. My employees were shocked at Christmas to see how small and my wife keeps bugging me to move. But I tell her, some months I have to borrow from line of credit to make the pay-roll, if we had a big mortgage too it would put me under too much stress.
This has been a big trouble at home and every time it looks like the market comes down a bit, something pushes it up. The government does some tricks or they let in a lot of people with money (without asking any questions) and we lose the chance to move up.
My employees too have the same problem.”
The speculative mania in housing has punished hardworking, prudent citizens. – vreaa
