Vancouver City Councillors Wake Up To ‘Fierce Speculative Demand’ – “There is significant evidence speculative investment has the biggest impact on housing costs in the city.”

“Speculative investment, the purchase of property based on anticipated price growth, has the biggest impact on housing costs in the city, according to Dan Garrison, a senior planner for the City of Vancouver. Some councillors feel this problem isn’t adequately addressed in the Housing Vancouver Strategy.

“There is significant evidence of speculative investment in our housing market that is driving housing costs,” Garrison said.
Gil Kelley, general manager, planning, urban design and sustainability for the City of Vancouver, said a lot of it has to do with excessive amounts of local and global capital from small and large investors looking to shelter their money and grow their equity.
“Vancouver is a very attractive city [as] a safe harbour for both B.C. residents and foreign investors,” Kelley said. “That coupled with low interest rates make for a pretty fierce speculative demand.”

– excerpt from ‘Vancouver to curb “fierce” demand by local and foreign housing speculators’, Thinkpol, 29 Nov 2017

Amen.
As we’ve been saying for… oooh… the last decade.
Solution to Vancouver Housing Conundrum:
Price crash to the point that all speculative interest is flushed out;
property prices then return to actual utility values as determined by actual ready money in our economy.
Problem solved.
– vreaa