The real problem with Vancouver’s outrageous house prices

[whatnext]

You know it's getting bad when even relatively well-paid academic jobs go begging:

..The faculty housing crisis is most acute at the University of British Columbia. A new 1,000-square-foot condo on campus sells for about $800,000, much less than the $1.8-million average price for a detached house, but still out of reach for many new professors.

Last year, UBC missed out on 18 hires who turned down job offers because of how unaffordable Vancouver has become, according to a survey of the university’s deans. For another 70 appointments, the housing issue was a key part of negotiations, the deans reported....

...Dr. Rea says that when he goes to conferences in Hong Kong or Taipei, he has seen ads for the units on campus that he and his colleagues can’t afford marketed to foreign buyers.

“Should UBC be leasing its land for a hundred years to the open market and mostly to the global rich?” he asks.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...-soaring-housing-prices/article30123278/