“Vancouver, Canada’s most bubbly housing market, wasn’t among the 73 cities studied. (When I first called UBS to ask about Vancouver, the folks that could help me were at lunch, in Zurich, the world’s second-most expensive city.)” – from ‘Toronto, Montreal ranked as pricey. What, no Vancouver?‘, Michael Babad, G&M, 17 Aug 2011, reporting on a study by UBS AG on “the world’s 20 priciest cities”. [In rankings of price levels excluding rent, Toronto ranks ninth and Montreal 17th.]
The truth is, these guys didn’t see us as important enough to consider in the rankings. As ‘three left feet’ said in the G&M comments: “Vancouver’s not on the list because globally it’s not an important city, despite what the locals claim.” – vreaa
That was in the comment section? It must be true! I would be interested in the real reason, as I too would expect it to be way up there.
That is the real reason.
For a financial institution in Switzerland, Vancouver is simply not in the top 80 cities of interest.
Sorry vreaa but I have to disagree with you here.
Under their methodology they could realistically only choose a select few cities from each country else the rankings would be dominated by clusters of cities from countries with strong local currencies (CHF, AUD, etc). This study is about as useful as one that would have just told us which currencies appreciated the most over the past 12 months.
Why would someone leave the real Best Place on Earth off of such a list? Maybe Vancouver (and BC) isn’t?
Now there’s an important message we’ll never see put out in the msm.
Vancouver’s myopic obsession with omphaloskepsis is one of the cutest things ever.
As they say, if you’re wondering whether you’re cool, you’re not cool.
Obviously these researchers need to be fired for incompetence. How can you possibly leave out the best place on Earth in a study? I mean Oslo, Helsinki are on the list but no Vancouver, seriously? Are these people on whatever they smoke in Zurich?
C’mon Rusty, get over there and give them a good smackdown. Europe obviously needs one to open their eyes.
Take a walk through the Platzspitz and you’ll know exactly what they smoke in Zurich.
it’s kind of like norway awarding that nobel peace prize to that evil dissident splittist, Liu Xiabao!
how dare they insult us
i suggest we petition the author to write a self criticism
he must confess his crimes
he has to wear the dunce cap around the town while the villagers throw rotten vegetables and fruit at him. oh and afterwards, kill him.
I keep hearing that renting is pretty affrdable here. So unless you’re buying a home (and no-one if forced to) Vancouver is a pretty affordable place. Be happy renters – this is good news.
Who are you, and what have you done with the real Rusty?
hahaha
Rusty is being cool as a cucumber, let’s just enjoy it.
” renting is pretty affrdable here”
It’s affordable by definition because people rent. It doesn’t make it cheap.
Renting is, however, cheap RELATIVE to owning but that fact has yet to come out in the wash.
I hear our rents are lower than Toronto. You should be happy Jesse, so why are you so glum?
Rents are lower, salaries are lowerer. I don’t rent but I care.
oh no, Vancouver is not on the list, better pack up and move!
troll team 6 in force