The Metro Vancouver Real Estate Thread

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Instead we get "A crackdown on fraud and tax evasion in the housing market, as well as a new two per cent speculation tax on those who don’t pay income tax in B.C."

I'm all in favour of the 2% Speculators Tax, but it just strikes me as weird they would increase the Foreign Buyers Tax from 15 to 20%, but not include pre-sales (as Ontario did). It's not as if it would kill the new construction market which is robust from all the accounts here. It seems to me a huge amount of the run-up in condo prices now is due to offshore developers paying outrageous sums for building lots. If land costs are so crazy housing will never be affordable.

[whatnext]

So we've come to the point where a 2 bedroom condo in your basic 1970's woodframe in Vancouver are listed for over $1 million. Unbelievable:
https://www.rew.ca/properties/R2241763/2...type=property_search&search_id=676476783

[MIPS]

The interior of that place...
That is one ugly 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 condo. No wonder it's only a million.

[giallo]

They made that condo purposefully ugly. They must have. No one single person lacks taste that much.

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by giallo

They made that condo purposefully ugly. They must have. No one single person lacks taste that much.

[MIPS]

At least Trump has a theme going. A very tacky one, but things match the space.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by giallo

They made that condo purposefully ugly. They must have. No one single person lacks taste that much.

Decor is a personal taste, at least it doesn't have the 🞵🞵🞵🞵 carpeting and dark carved wood kitchen that likely came with it when new.

The real issue is that we're talking about a unit in a 1970's wood frame building! For over a million! That shows how ridiculous Vancouver real estate has become. Here's a link to a page with an exterior photo:
https://bccondos.net/1720-12

The only thing I can thing of is that there's a developer circling this strata for redevelopment. Which of course is just another symptom of Vancouver's real estate insanity.

[Cypherus]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I'm all in favour of the 2% Speculators Tax, but it just strikes me as weird they would increase the Foreign Buyers Tax from 15 to 20%, but not include pre-sales (as Ontario did). It's not as if it would kill the new construction market which is robust from all the accounts here. It seems to me a huge amount of the run-up in condo prices now is due to offshore developers paying outrageous sums for building lots. If land costs are so crazy housing will never be affordable.

Did I miss something? I thought all presale condos were always subject to the foreign buyers' tax? The general consensus was that if a non-resident wanted to avoid that tax, they would assign their offer to purchase contract to someone else and make a profit (and likely not report it for tax purposes in Canada - taking the money back with them overseas). The NDP has banned assignments which would close that loophole and limit such speculative behaviour by non-residents.

[Cypherus]

Originally Posted by whatnext

So we've come to the point where a 2 bedroom condo in your basic 1970's woodframe in Vancouver are listed for over $1 million. Unbelievable:
https://www.rew.ca/properties/R2241763/2...type=property_search&search_id=676476783

According to: https://www.bcassessment.ca/Property/Info/QTAwMDAwMTJESg==

No sales history in the last 3 years but the price is significantly above its 2017 assessed value by almost $300K.

[Nites]

Originally Posted by MIPS

The interior of that place...
That is one ugly 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 condo. No wonder it's only a million.

Good god that is hideous lol. Yet so much money spent on marble floor and counter top. Did you see the dinning table lol?

[rofina]

Originally Posted by whatnext

So we've come to the point where a 2 bedroom condo in your basic 1970's woodframe in Vancouver are listed for over $1 million. Unbelievable:
https://www.rew.ca/properties/R2241763/2...type=property_search&search_id=676476783

Not a defense of the pricing insanity here... but.

That's about $930 a square foot.

New building you will not see anywhere near that price, and downtown you are looking at hard costs in excess of that.

So there is some "value" there ( I cringed as I typed that).

[rofina]

Originally Posted by wrenegade

While we are building plenty, it still isn't enough. And like anything, if it didn't take 24-36 months for permits and developers were able to start construction on projects much sooner I think we would see more contractors/trades come from the interior/island/Alberta to take advantage if they were able to line up projects in a pipeline. If there is work to be done, someone will show up to do it.

This is a major issue, that I have heard over and over.

Its nearly impossible to create any project flow, you can get delayed by 6-12 months at the whim of a planner.

I have a few home builder friends - one is starting to tear down a house in Vancouver, 24months after the permit process started.

As a small builder, how do you operate a business with the uncertainty of when the work is going ahead? Its not a margin of weeks, or often even months, but years.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Did I miss something? I thought all presale condos were always subject to the foreign buyers' tax? The general consensus was that if a non-resident wanted to avoid that tax, they would assign their offer to purchase contract to someone else and make a profit (and likely not report it for tax purposes in Canada - taking the money back with them overseas). The NDP has banned assignments which would close that loophole and limit such speculative behaviour by non-residents.

Nope.

...The assignment market also provides a loophole for offshore investors to avoid the foreign buyer tax, which only applies to land titles - and there is no land title until construction is finished....
https://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKBN1DG2W2-OCABS

Such a loophole was understandable from the BC Liberals, whose chief fundraiser for many years was Bob Rennie, but it is inexcusable the NDP didn't close it.

[s211]

Originally Posted by giallo

They made that condo purposefully ugly. They must have. No one single person lacks taste that much.

I've seen a few instances where people of certain persuasions are that, um, "eclectic" in their tastes.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Nope.

...The assignment market also provides a loophole for offshore investors to avoid the foreign buyer tax, which only applies to land titles - and there is no land title until construction is finished....
https://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKBN1DG2W2-OCABS

Such a loophole was understandable from the BC Liberals, whose chief fundraiser for many years was Bob Rennie, but it is inexcusable the NDP didn't close it.

This is the only one I have mixed feelings about.

I don't think its necessarily bad that foreign capital is effectively financing the construction of all the condos in Metro Van.

We have plenty of spin off benefit - employment being a massive one.

And these people now have the imperative to keep these places occupied. Could be a win/win.

My basic point being - only thing worse than high prices, is crashing the construction industry preventing it from building.

That's tens of thousands of jobs gone, and thousands of units that wont come online.

That does not create any positive scenarios for the region.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by rofina

This is the only one I have mixed feelings about.

I don't think its necessarily bad that foreign capital is effectively financing the construction of all the condos in Metro Van.

We have plenty of spin off benefit - employment being a massive one.

And these people now have the imperative to keep these places occupied. Could be a win/win.

My basic point being - only thing worse than high prices, is crashing the construction industry preventing it from building.

That's tens of thousands of jobs gone, and thousands of units that wont come online.

That does not create any positive scenarios for the region.

There is still plenty of local demand. As wrenegade pointed out upthread, developers are having a hard time finding people to build for it.

The price inflation caused by foreign money definitely isn't worth it. The construction industry would still be robust.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by rofina

I don't think its necessarily bad that foreign capital is effectively financing the construction of all the condos in Metro Van.

My fear is that sure they can't build them faster than they can take their communist money and it's good for the construction industry, but at what point do they start wondering what corners you can trim to speed it up a little? They can already build the average modern Vancouver Special in less than a month.

[Pinion]

Originally Posted by MIPS

My fear is that sure they can't build them faster than they can take their communist money and it's good for the construction industry, but at what point do they start wondering what corners you can trim to speed it up a little? They can already build the average modern Vancouver Special in less than a month.

If you've seen the guts of any new buildings the answer is "there's nothing left to cut corners on." Almost all new condos are poorly built trash by incompetent, inexperienced workers that will probably kill people decades from now and will definitely cost owners tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars each in early special assessments. It's shameful - the new areas now will be ghettos in the future and people will talk about "early 21st century buildings" with derision.

[wrenegade]

For any building roughly 6 storeys and smaller, it takes longer to get entitlements than it does to actually physically build. In the City of Vancouver it's any building roughly 15-20 storeys. The speed at which the actual building happens is not really the issue.

[SpongeG]

if you wanna see tacky check this place out, its for sale in ft st john, has been reduced from its original asking of 6 million. Rumour is it belongs to the russian mafia, they are well known to be running the scene if you will up there, they took over or won the turf from the hells angels...

all the furniture is from Russia and China apparently

full pics here
https://www.bcbusiness.ca/Big-Fat-Deal-4-million-for-a-Fort-St-John-crime-against-taste-and-decency



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