The Metro Vancouver Real Estate Thread

[Vin]

Originally Posted by misher

I know we always get complaints that people in these neighbourhoods don't want more density so my suggestion is to just pick one area thats mostly commercial/industrial near transit and build gigantic towers everywhere, screw the views and screw everything else, make them look decent and just pack in gigantic towers that maximize units with some commercial/retain on the 1st -2nd floors Look at this thing, 682 units and its less than 20 stories. Imagine if they built 40 stories and a few more towers or wider towers so that we can pack in 1600 condos. As there's only about 300,000 households in Vancouver each of these buildings would increase housing supply by 0.5%. So if we just built 30 of them it would likely solve our housing crisis (combined with all the new construction thats already happening). Of course our construction industry may not be able to build them all at once, but I think this would be a much quicker and more efficient solution than turning everywhere into townhouses.

That would be ideal. Problem is every neighbourhood faces opposition, and even a handful of people opposing can make the City back off from high density proposals. We need City officials with wisdom as well as guts.

[GenWhy?]

You'll see multiple projects like this along Cambie (at least 3? not including Marine Drive), Joyce Station, Commercial Drive Station, Kingsway, all of East Hastings is under a new density and height plan, the MIRPP program I've mentioned before city-wide (14-storey rentals), Northeast False Creek, then of course there's the Metro high-rise areas which helps Van proper with real estate issues and housing.


We can barely even build (rezoning/dev permit) 6-storey buildings in SF home neighbourhoods along arterials on commercial shopping strips. Local opposition trumps plans, and when the public hates plans being driven against then that they don't like then they elect people who agree with them and that's democracy... we're working with the system we got but we're making headway.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I think we're already there at trying to stop foreign capital from influencing the housing market.

Problem is the damage is already done. With locals houses now worth millions they are financing their kids purchases and a lot of the demand you see now is local.

Not a ton of foreign buyers still buying in Vancouver from what I'm seeing.

So the question becomes, how to "unstick" SFH prices? If nobody is buying, how do you convince buyers to lower their prices to get a sale? Holding out the possibility of some unneeded land assembly probably isn't the way to do it.

Reading this article, I believe we're currently in a phase of hypersupply (or overshoot) all the building makes observers think it's necessary but the steep decline in sales will prove otherwise.

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

So the question becomes, how to "unstick" SFH prices? If nobody is buying, how do you convince buyers to lower their prices to get a sale? Holding out the possibility of some unneeded land assembly probably isn't the way to do it.

Reading this article, I believe we're currently in a phase of hypersupply (or overshoot) all the building makes observers think it's necessary but the steep decline in sales will prove otherwise.

Well what we are having now "I think" is that people still list for the old prices, but are willing to take less upon negotiation. We had bidding wars before where people offer more than the listed price and now we have people offering less. But the listed prices aren't changing much?

Also we like to blame foreign buyers but in actuality they don't have that much of an effect. I'm not saying that the buyers aren't "foreign" that being non-white, I'm saying that most have Canadian citizenship/PR already so they don't get affected by our rules/regulations against them. Going by the below were competing with Canadians now. https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2018/08/16/foreign-buyers-metro-vancouver-real-estate/

[NewfBC]

Originally Posted by misher

I know we always get complaints that people in these neighbourhoods don't want more density so my suggestion is to just pick one area thats mostly commercial/industrial near transit and build gigantic towers everywhere, screw the views and screw everything else, make them look decent and just pack in gigantic towers that maximize units with some commercial/retain on the 1st -2nd floors Look at this thing, 682 units and its less than 20 stories. Imagine if they built 40 stories and a few more towers or wider towers so that we can pack in 1600 condos. As there's only about 300,000 households in Vancouver each of these buildings would increase housing supply by 0.5%. So if we just built 30 of them it would likely solve our housing crisis (combined with all the new construction thats already happening). Of course our construction industry may not be able to build them all at once, but I think this would be a much quicker and more efficient solution than turning everywhere into townhouses.

Imagine how many 'affordable' homes the government could have built on the Oakridge transit land with such high density.

Ron.

[whatnext]

Exhibit A for overshooting:

..Vancouver Condo Inventory Jumps Over 66%

There’s a lot of condo inventory hitting the market in Greater Vancouver. REBGV reported 2,243 new listings in July, down 1.1% from the month before. This represents a 3.84% increase compared to the same month last year. Decline sales, and more inventory pushed total inventory significantly higher.

The total number of active listings in Greater Vancouver made a huge climb. REBGV had 3,952 active condo listings in July, up 66.96% from last year. This brought the sales to active listings ratio to 27.3% for condos, compared to 62% last year. When the ratio falls below 20%, the industry considers the market “balanced.” If the ratio falls below 12%, it becomes a “buyers market,” and prices rapidly decline.

Generally speaking, Greater Vancouver condo sales experienced higher inventory, and less sales. The market responded as expected, further decelerating price gains. Even with the decelerated price gains, the market is still running hot. A single month decline is far from a trend, and most regions have condos printing double digit gains from last year. This market has a long way to go before it enters healthy territory.

https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouve...argest-monthly-price-decline-since-2012/

[MIPS]

Man I knew that there were a few places in town that were cramming as many people under a roof but even Full House ain't got nothing on this one.

$1K per month to rent a tent in a Vancouver backyard? How about 20 roommates?

Christina Monaco has been living in the 13-bedroom home at 511 West 65th Avenue since last year, when she said she was told she’d be sharing it with just a few people.

“Only two to three roommates… And turns out there’s more and more,” she said.

She told Global News that she and her boyfriend are among 21 people who live in the house, where rent averages $1,000 per month per person.

It’s an extreme squeeze, but one Monaco feels like she has little choice but to accept given competition int he rental market; according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) latest figures, Vancouver has a 0.9 per cent rental vacancy rate.

“There’s one person that lives here, he– there’s three people in a room, and they pay $1,200,” Monaco said.

“[The landlord] wants to rent to [people] from other countries, because they don’t know English, they don’t know the law.”

Monaco stopped sleeping in her room and moved into a tent in the backyard because she said the house is dirty and noisy, and she was fed up with sharing common spaces with so many people.

But while she may not have four walls and a roof, Monaco says she’s still being charged the same rent as everyone else.

“I still pay $1,000 for staying out here,” she said.

- https://globalnews.ca/news/4395692/vancouver-nightmare-rental/

The landlord is the greasiest F/N slimeball I've ever heard of.

The property manager wouldn’t go on camera, but disputes Monaco’s claim that 21 people live in the house.

She said there are actually 14 or 15 occupants, most of them international students with working visas who are doing short-term rentals.

Asked about permits for this situation, she said she wasn’t clear about it.

She added that the home — like several others she owns and operates — is scheduled for demolition in the next few months.

[Klazu]

That's a nice income of $15-20K per month and likely tax-free. I have a suspicion about the type of landlord this is, but I was mostly left wondering how can that building have 13 bedrooms? It looks like a tiny shithole building to me.

[MIPS]

I was going to post this in the ALR McMansion thread but this is in Vancouver proper in a regular size plot and not a custom built apartment. I think the landlord literally looked at every room in the house and divided it at least once. I can assure you that City Bylaw would run away screaming if they got inside. You get a glimpse on the Global report of a maze of unmarked doors.

[GeeCee]

The Amazon Era Is Making Vancouver the World’s Hottest Warehouse Market

Forget that multi-million-dollar condo on Vancouver’s waterfront. Invest in a warehouse instead.

The Canadian city is the world’s hottest industrial real estate market with lease rates up 29 percent in the first quarter year-on-year versus a global average of 3 percent. IKEA and BMW AG are among companies that have snapped up the biggest industrial and logistics spaces, according to data provided by CBRE Group Inc.

“Industrial previously was almost like a forgotten asset class,” Jason Kiselbach, vice president and sales manager at CBRE Vancouver, said by phone. “But we haven’t even scratched the surface of the demand that’s going to continue to grow and put more pressure on the industrial market.”

E-commerce giants like Amazon.com Inc. are driving the need for more logistics and storage space in urban centers. Consumers demanding quick online deliveries are forcing companies to carry more inventory in the city where the last-mile deliveries take place. Those dynamics are playing out across Canada and the U.S.

"The big household retail names -- you don’t realize that everything that they provide you has to come through a warehouse," said Kiselbach. "The new retail is really warehouse direct sales."

It’s great news for landlords but underscores how Metro Vancouver is running out of the kind of land that supports one in four jobs -- and often some of the best-paying ones. Geographic constraints like mountains and water are one issue. But vast swathes of prime property near the city are reserved for agricultural use, while rezoning industrial land to residential use can mean a big bump in revenue for municipalities.

Industry forecasts indicate the region could run out of industrial land within a decade -- some even say as early as 2020. If that happens, it could hollow out Vancouver’s economy, relegating the Pacific Coast city into a playground for wealthy retirees and tourists, Robin Silvester, chief executive officer of the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s biggest, has long warned.

A site needs to be at least 100,000 square feet to be of any use to most major industrial business. As of June, Vancouver had five, according to CBRE.

"These rising lease rates really speak to the strength of the economy -- the growth in population, consumer spending," says Kiselbach, but adds, "there’s definitely the potential that we might lose some economic benefits if we can’t address the supply issue."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ncouver-world-s-hottest-warehouse-market

[s211]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Man I knew that there were a few places in town that were cramming as many people under a roof but even Full House ain't got nothing on this one.

The landlord is the greasiest F/N slimeball I've ever heard of.

I watched that on the morning news. After being outed, I can only hope that somehow the owner makes Rev Canada's radar.

[whatnext]

Hallelujah! From today's Sun:

Some realtors believe major price correction underway in Metro Vancouver

A number of Vancouver realtors believe a significant decline is happening in Metro Vancouver house prices, though official statistics are so far providing more muted signals.

The number of detached homes selling in Metro has been dropping for more than six months, but only recently have there been signs of easing of the city’s stratospheric prices...

...<realtor>Watt agrees, adding that each transaction of a detached home on the west side leads to several others elsewhere.

The downward trend would come off some intense price gains in the last few years. Watt says, in January 2015, the median sale price for downtown condos was for $493,000, according to SnapStats. In January 2018, it was $950,000 for an increase of 93 per cent.

“My thoughts are if they went up that fast, they can certainly go down that fast. That was a one-time Chinese money infusion and a spectacular frenzy, which are both over. Vancouver will never be affordable, but it will drop 25 per cent or more,” says Watt...

https://vancouversun.com/business/local-...metro-housing-market?video_autoplay=true

[NewfBC]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Hallelujah! From today's Sun:

Some realtors believe major price correction underway in Metro Vancouver

A number of Vancouver realtors believe a significant decline is happening in Metro Vancouver house prices, though official statistics are so far providing more muted signals.

The number of detached homes selling in Metro has been dropping for more than six months, but only recently have there been signs of easing of the city’s stratospheric prices...

...<realtor>Watt agrees, adding that each transaction of a detached home on the west side leads to several others elsewhere.

The downward trend would come off some intense price gains in the last few years. Watt says, in January 2015, the median sale price for downtown condos was for $493,000, according to SnapStats. In January 2018, it was $950,000 for an increase of 93 per cent.

“My thoughts are if they went up that fast, they can certainly go down that fast. That was a one-time Chinese money infusion and a spectacular frenzy, which are both over. Vancouver will never be affordable, but it will drop 25 per cent or more,” says Watt...

https://vancouversun.com/business/local-...metro-housing-market?video_autoplay=true

And then there's this...

Fire-destroyed Vancouver home listed for $3.99 million





http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/2573-west-3rd-avenue-vancouver-home-kitsilano

Ron.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by whatnext

"That was a one-time Chinese money infusion and a spectacular frenzy, which are both over", says Watt...

That's herecy! We have been told over and over again by so many people in facy suits that foreign speculative money is only FEW PERCENT of the market and it's all LOCAL buyers. I refuse to believe his comment and am thinking he is also a racist to think that way. /s

[Firebrand]

Originally Posted by Klazu

That's herecy! We have been told over and over again by so many people in facy suits that foreign speculative money is only FEW PERCENT of the market and it's all LOCAL buyers. I refuse to believe his comment and am thinking he is also a racist to think that way. /s

He's a realtor. You shouldn't be surprised by his lies.

[MIPS]

Question: Is operating an AirB&B suite in a house something you need to declare to your insurance broker?

A few news outlets covering that fire in Kits this afternoon pointed out that the house was both for sale AND operating as an AirB&B flop. I'm curious how that could impact the homeowners claim.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Question: Is operating an AirB&B suite in a house something you need to declare to your insurance broker?

A few news outlets covering that fire in Kits this afternoon pointed out that the house was both for sale AND operating as an AirB&B flop. I'm curious how that could impact the homeowners claim.

You would think so - I imagine the risks are increased exponentially.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Question: Is operating an AirB&B suite in a house something you need to declare to your insurance broker?

A few news outlets covering that fire in Kits this afternoon pointed out that the house was both for sale AND operating as an AirB&B flop. I'm curious how that could impact the homeowners claim.

I'd be very curious to know that if like the other fire damaged Kits listing above in this thread, it is owned by a numbered company held by offshore owners.

Just another reason to hate AirBnB.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Just another reason to hate AirBnB.

What has always bothered me about them is that while the idea of renting out an extra room in the house at a nightly rate sounds kinda nice, the Terms and Conditions are so open to abuse it seems intentional. That added with the fact that often it can be cheaper to get a REAL hotel room for less per night just seems really suspicious but clearly is not unprofitable.

Edited: I went and quickly checked and yes, be it downtown, the airport or in North Van there are easily a half dozen hotels with nightly rates $100 or more less per night compared to the rate at this kits house.

[misher]

Originally Posted by MIPS

What has always bothered me about them is that while the idea of renting out an extra room in the house at a nightly rate sounds kinda nice, the Terms and Conditions are so open to abuse it seems intentional. That added with the fact that often it can be cheaper to get a REAL hotel room for less per night just seems really suspicious but clearly is not unprofitable.

Edited: I went and quickly checked and yes, be it downtown, the airport or in North Van there are easily a half dozen hotels with nightly rates $100 or more less per night compared to the rate at this kits house.

Yeah I was wondering about that, it seems like hotel rooms are cheaper, safer, more convenient, and less work.