Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
It's not the sole solution but is one that too many forumers cavalierly try to dismiss. For example, nobody commented when I linked this article of one real estate debacle that is tied to the purchase "several" West Side mansions and condos purchased by one family. You only see the ones that hit the headlines for legal reasons, not the similar purchases that never make the news. How much of our limited land supply do "several West Side mansions" occupy?
If we truly have so much unmet demand why do we have so many unsold units? Do people really think developers are going to rush out and build like crazy just because the Villages plan was passed and watch prices fall? They'll jut sit on the land as usual until they think that can sell for the the old, exorbitant prices. Council would have been better off starting with one or two areas that are nearly there, like West Point Grey and Dunbar, so people could see how these areas would work rather than propose a blanket policy for the whole city, all at once. |
Oh, to be clear, I do think foreign demand played a role, and I wouldn't claim it's a negligible force now. Yes, there are some forumers that would perhaps sweep this under a rug.
I think if condos are going unsold it's because they're small and unpleasant to live in, a general sentiment that the NIMBY crowd also holds. And they're not off the mark. It's also crucial that we name that the investor class is not exclusively limited to foreign capital. Many Canadian citizens - already wealthy enough to own one property - have leveraged their assets to purchase more properties (obviously; the financialization of real estate in Canada's economy isn't new here). So it follows that these empty condos you speak of, which do exist (albeit nowhere near as bad as it is currently in Toronto), are empty not just from an absence of foreign capital, but also perhaps an absence of domestic capital, where local investors no longer see them as a sure bet.
All of that does not rule out that there can still be plenty of demand from Canadian young people + families who
actually need housing.
My earlier comment was referring to the absolutists. Not the old fogeys in Point Grey/Kits/etc that are truly against change (to varying degrees of conscious acknowledgement), but rather the crowd of the comfortably housed that purports to have a
huge issue with affordability, but insists that the
only reason prices are high is because our loose real estate regulations and permissive federal immigration policy has allowed too many foreigners to sweep up our properties. Publicly express your enthusiasm for 6 story multiplexes in SFH territory? You're a developer shill, and you probably blow Ian Gillespie in your spare time.
These are the functionally insane. They were the toxic regulars on Twitter in the mid to late 2010s, and getting exposed to that day after day honestly led me to mute anything to do with Vancouver politics and city planning, long before I gave up on Twitter entirely.
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