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On Duelling Xenophobias & Putting Money Down On A Housing Collapse

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by Sean Orr | Too little too late? ‘We are going to end the right of the B.C. real estate sector to self regulate,’ premier says. “She said the hiring process for a new superintendent of real estate has already begun”. It’s Bob Rennie isn’t it? It’s totally going to be Rennie.

While it’s a good start and it makes it look like they are actually doing something, there is still no mention of curbing the flow of foreign capital: A One-Point Plan to tackle Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis: kill Quebec’s millionaire migration scam. “Those 1,400 annual BC-bound QIIP households will give Quebec $1.12 billion in interest-free loans. BC will get none”. What’s so great about this idea is that it’s way easier to be xenophobic towards Quebec than the Chinese.

It can’t stop all of the foreign money flowing into Vancouver, and nor should it try to stop that which builds a thriving economy. But it can stop some of it, the bits that bear no relationship to meaningful investment or tax revenue and instead treat Vancouver like a piggy bank.

Meanwhile, Mortgage Professionals Canada says there’s no evidence of housing bubble. The 2007 sub-prime collapse never happened. Baudrillard never died. Cigarettes don’t cause cancer. There is no spoon

…and Canada doesn’t have a “bustling sub-prime lending industry that exists with almost zero regulations” either: Billion Dollar Fund Manager Comes Out Of Retirement To Bet Against Canadian Real Estate.

“The Country is using housing as an economic generator, and it’s going to be an economic killer…housing is shelter, and right now it’s being used for speculative purposes”

Grandview-Woodland plan no solution to housing affordability crisis, says resident.

Protecting the architectural nature of the neighbourhood at the expense of protecting the ability for young people to live there will eventually turn the neighbourhood in to a snobby country club at the expense of children and young families moving in.

Which means I finally get an opportunity to reference Arrested Development:

The dark side of densification: West End real estate takes off on value of densification plan. Again, the comment section is screaming that it’s the mayor’s fault, but I found this little nugget quite fascinating:

In the past it was hard for developers to buy entire strata buildings, because it was difficult to get 100 per cent of the owners to sign off on a deal. But the provincial government is bringing in new rules that allow a strata building to be sold if 80 per cent of owners agree to a sale. It has yet to be enacted into law, but developers have been rushing in to try to lock up sites.

People are basically flipping camp sites: European campers snap up sites in ‘sold-out’ B.C. parks.

Good news of the day: Northern Gateway pipeline approval overturned. Until, you know, it gets approved again.

Alberta of the day: RCMP teepee canvas stolen from Siksika First Nation. I can’t believe there was an RCMP-branded teepee in the first place.

Bonus: a Walrus editorial on Parting Ways with the Queen.

There are 2 comments

  1. Let’s not get fluttered about strata renewals; this is a perfect (and only) solution for old, obsolete and particularly smaller low-rise condos, some which have had not years but decades of deferred maintenance. Many have avoided depreciation reports because they don’t want to be given news of multi-million $ costs (borne by strata owners), to bring the bldgs into a functional state. In the past, under the veto system, one psychopath hold-out could force the bldg to continue rotting and the rest of the owners watching their asset values plummet. They couldn’t even move; some bldgs & units are so bad, there are no buyers. Now, it’s a win for all parties; owners get bought out and good prices, additional units get supplied through higher density, and the bldgs are up to code (safety, enviro performance, etc). Japan is way ahead of us on moving from a 100 to 80% vote.

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