Vancouver Real Estate 'Bubble' at 30-year Peak

[Changing City]

(duplicate)

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by giallo

It does feel that we are reaching a point where the lack of housing is going to be felt everywhere, by everyone. You can't having 500,000+ people moving to Canada per year, and continue with these restrictive zoning laws, and brutally slow approval processes for proposed housing projects.

Something needs to change, and fast.

That's unlikely to happen; the construction industry is building pretty much building as much as they can right now. And permits, starts and completions of apartments (rental and strata combined), has been at a high in Metro Vancouver for the past 5 years. (Apartments make up over half the units built in Metro Vancouver). There's a chart of StatsCan construction data extracted by Jens van Bergmann that won't show up here

[GenWhy?]

Not to mention land and construction are thru the roof, again / still.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by giallo

It does feel that we are reaching a point where the lack of housing is going to be felt everywhere, by everyone. You can't having 500,000+ people moving to Canada per year, and continue with these restrictive zoning laws, and brutally slow approval processes for proposed housing projects.

Something needs to change, and fast.

The disconnect between all levels of government is unreal.

The municipal governments try to appease NIMBY's in many urban areas across the country by stalling development, all while trying to up property taxes for homeowners and landlords.

Provincial governments want to capitalize off the housing market by adding taxes to property sales and transactions.

The federal government wants to bring in new votes and appease businesses by flooding the country with new immigrants and temporary workers which fuel the real estate market and rental market.

There's really no push to address the issue at the supply level. I think they should completely stall immigration and allow for supply to catch up at this point but that notion would seem racist.

[Migrant_Coconut]

There were 244k housing starts across the country, and the national household occupancy rate is 2.5, so statistically we're fine. The problem is that most of them are all piling into only three cities.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

There were 244k housing starts across the country, and the national household occupancy rate is 2.5, so statistically we're fine. The problem is that most of them are all piling into only three cities.

Are those net new starts? Lots of the "starts" even in big cities are rebuilds of SFHs.

And yeah, single bedroom condos in Toronto aren't going to fit 2.5 people.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Are those net new starts? Lots of the "starts" even in big cities are rebuilds of SFHs.

And yeah, single bedroom condos in Toronto aren't going to fit 2.5 people.

True. Fortunately, SFHs are rarely more than a quarter or third of all starts. How many of them are rebuilds, I have no idea.

Yup, and 3-bed 2-bath Vancouver Specials are overkill for a single professional. Hence "statistically."

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by giallo

I'm looking to rent a place in Metro Vancouver right now, and it's absolutely brutal - and I don't means the rent prices (they're insane, make no mistake), it's the competition. Every single place I've looked at, there's a line up of people viewing it. As someone that's lived outside of the country for an extended period, all of my references are outside of the province/country which is an immediate turn off to prospective landlords.

I had no idea it was going to be this tough.

This is a shame as I know you'd been planning this move back for a long time.

Without knowing all the particulars, I had some questions. Is there a particular area and apt size you're looking for? I guess the reference issue is just renters wanting easy verification, do you have a current employer who could reference for you?

[logan5]

Originally Posted by giallo

It does feel that we are reaching a point where the lack of housing is going to be felt everywhere, by everyone. You can't having 500,000+ people moving to Canada per year, and continue with these restrictive zoning laws, and brutally slow approval processes for proposed housing projects.

Something needs to change, and fast.

It’s as simple as rearing RS zoning or whatever it’s called in other cities. You can easily build 6 family sized homes on 1 Vancouver lot. The rest of Canada has huge 8000 sq foot lots that have only 1 house on them. That has to change.

[s211]

The first post in this thread was in 2010. Should we update the name of the thread?

[giallo]

Originally Posted by whatnext

This is a shame as I know you'd been planning this move back for a long time.

Without knowing all the particulars, I had some questions. Is there a particular area and apt size you're looking for? I guess the reference issue is just renters wanting easy verification, do you have a current employer who could reference for you?

We're looking for a one bedroom in the $2100-$2300 range. The main stipulation is that we want to be near the skytrain.

I now have an employer that is helping with references, so that should open a few more doors for us.

What I've found most surprising is that landlords don't care about your bank account, and if you offer them six months rent up front. They care about your reputation as a citizen/tenant. Rental laws in BC favour tenants so heavily, landlords are absolutely petrified about getting stuck with crazy/psycho renters. The rental/housing shortage mixed with not having relevant Canadian references is the perfect storm, and makes finding a place to live an almost impossible task.

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by giallo

We're looking for a one bedroom in the $2100-$2300 range. The main stipulation is that we want to be near the skytrain.

I now have an employer that is helping with references, so that should open a few more doors for us.

What I've found most surprising is that landlords don't care about your bank account, and if you offer them six months rent up front. They care about your reputation as a citizen/tenant. Rental laws in BC favour tenants so heavily, landlords are absolutely petrified about getting stuck with crazy/psycho renters. The rental/housing shortage mixed with not having relevant Canadian references is the perfect storm, and makes finding a place to live an almost impossible task.

Speaking from the other side having gone through the process of screening applicants, I'd recommend against offering 6 month's upfront if that is something you are doing on the applications (early on the process). IMO, if someone is offering more than the regular asking ( for example selling a used car and someone offers me more than my asking ), that would raise a suspicous eyebrow or two. Similarly, the ones that offered multiple months upfront no strings attached, I had to immediately question if they were over-compensating for something else, possibly nefarious or sign of bad rental history etc. I get that it is supposed to be a safety net of positive for the landlord, but it comes with the drawbacks of highlighting the possible weaknesses of the overall application if that makes any sense.

Hope I articulated it in a way that is not offensive. Wish you good luck finding something!

You're absolutely correct that rental rules heavily favor the tenant here, so really are getting picked over with a fine-toothed comb.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by giallo

We're looking for a one bedroom in the $2100-$2300 range. The main stipulation is that we want to be near the skytrain.

Our current apartment is going up for rent since we're moving to the West End for a two bedroom.

Great view, huge deck, everything in walking distance, Skytrain to downtown is 20 minutes.

https://www.rentwithadvent.com/gold-house-1-bedroom-apartment-rental-1907-6383-mckay-burnaby

[giallo]

^ Thanks for the advice and recommendations, guys.

We managed to find a pretty sweet place in the Broadway/Commercial area. Considering how many people I've interacted with looking for a place to live, I feel lucky to have found what I did.

I'm happy to be back in Vancouver.

[vanman]

Welcome back giallo!

[giallo]

Originally Posted by vanman

Welcome back giallo!

Thanks, vanman!

[Klazu]

Indeed, welcome back! It is a different city from few years ago, but I hope you like it.

Having been on the market several times, I know how tough finding a good place is. We are in the premium price tier and there I have found maximum ROI being the most important thing to landlords, not as much getting good tenants. We are really lucky to have a very reasonable and nice landlady since 3.5 years.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by giallo

^ Thanks for the advice and recommendations, guys.

We managed to find a pretty sweet place in the Broadway/Commercial area. Considering how many people I've interacted with looking for a place to live, I feel lucky to have found what I did.

I'm happy to be back in Vancouver.

Glad to hear you found a place!

And you're perfectly positioned to record all the changes that will be happening in that area.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Glad to hear you found a place!

And you're perfectly positioned to record all the changes that will be happening in that area.

Thanks!

For sure. There are quite a few projects happening right now along Broadway between Commercial and Main.

Originally Posted by Klazu

Indeed, welcome back! It is a different city from few years ago, but I hope you like it.

Having been on the market several times, I know how tough finding a good place is. We are in the premium price tier and there I have found maximum ROI being the most important thing to landlords, not as much getting good tenants. We are really lucky to have a very reasonable and nice landlady since 3.5 years.

Yeah. It was crazy. We had a decent budget, but being new to the city without local work/landlord references definitely hurt our prospects for a bit there.

[madog222]

Amendments to the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act’s accompanying Regulations
The following amendments are being announced by the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion:

Enable more work permit holders to purchase a home to live in while working in Canada.
The amendments will allow those who hold a work permit or are authorized to work in Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations to purchase residential property. Work permit holders are eligible if they have 183 days or more of validity remaining on their work permit or work authorization at time of purchase, and they have not purchased more than one residential property. The current provisions on tax filings and previous work experience in Canada are being repealed.

Repealing existing provision so the prohibition doesn’t apply to vacant land.
We are repealing section 3(2) of the regulations, so the prohibition does not apply to all lands zoned for residential and mixed use. Vacant land zoned for residential and mixed use can now be purchased by non-Canadians and used for any purpose by the purchaser, including residential development.

Exception for development purposes.
This exception allows non-Canadians to purchase residential property for the purpose of development. The amendments also extend the exception currently applicable to publicly traded corporations under the Act, to publicly traded entities formed under the laws of Canada or a province and controlled by a non-Canadian.

Increasing the corporation foreign control threshold from 3% to 10%.
For the purposes of the prohibition, with regards to privately held corporations or privately held entities formed under the laws of Canada or a province and controlled by a non-Canadian, the control threshold has increased from 3% to 10%. This aligns with the definition of ‘specified Canadian Corporation’ in the Underused Housing Tax Act.

https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/media-new...ntial-property-non-canadians-regulations