China's Millionaire Migration

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Realtylink lists 4 sub 400,000 homes in Maple Ridge, all the kind of dumps I started my home buying in, actually one of them looks like a nice little rental property that I am now thinking I might take a look at!

$400k isn't exactly affordable for many young families, especially when you factor in transportation costs.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Realtylink lists 4 sub 400,000 homes in Maple Ridge, all the kind of dumps I started my home buying in, actually one of them looks like a nice little rental property that I am now thinking I might take a look at!

I see 2 houses listed.

The first is 1000sq feet.

The other states "House has little value, value in land." That means the house is beyond a few simple renovations and is likely a total tear down.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

I have not found this to be true in Alberta unless you consider Hutterite colonies to be foreign buyers.

Some provinces do not allow it as much. Speculation and foreign money is still driving up land prices like crazy regardless of who ends up buying it.

10 years ago farm land was $400/acre in Sask. Now it is often 10x that. Why?

[sun]

Originally Posted by blankall

I'm a lawyer in Vancouver, and housing is out of price for us. I know a few double lawyer couples who've bought small and run down places on the East side for 1.4 million or so. Even then, they typically get substantial help from their parents (like $250k+ in cash kind of help). They end up pretty cash strapped supporting the mortgage though and have to do renovations themselves and often regret the decision.

The whole system in Vancouver is messed up. Quite frankly if 2 working lawyers cannot afford a place in a run down area of town, something is wrong.

I also know lots of people who've just given up and moved to Kelowna or Victoria. That's becoming more the norm. Vancouver is a fun place to spend your 20s in, but you leave shortly after. There's basically very little in the way of functioning economy at this point as the cost of housing is too out of control.

It's a tough situation for any government to be in, as the current home owners have an interest in keeping prices high, but the effect has just been so devastating to the economy that everyone else is suffering.

Brother and sister in law are a surgeon and a GP who feel they are priced out of Vancouver too. She grew up in Kerrisdale, so could probably stand to lower expectations a touch. They're not going to raise a family in a condo though, I can guarantee that.

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by sun

Brother and sister in law are a surgeon and a GP who feel they are priced out of Vancouver too. She grew up in Kerrisdale, so could probably stand to lower expectations a touch. They're not going to raise a family in a condo though, I can guarantee that.

Damn a GP and Surgeons salary yearly is likely close to $1 million to $1.5 million combined.

If they can't afford a house in Vancouver nobody can.

[sun]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Damn a GP and Surgeons salary yearly is likely close to $1 million to $1.5 million combined.

If they can't afford a house in Vancouver nobody can.

Not quite, they're still pretty early in their careers. But yes, they are definitely making $$$.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by sun

Brother and sister in law are a surgeon and a GP who feel they are priced out of Vancouver too. She grew up in Kerrisdale, so could probably stand to lower expectations a touch. They're not going to raise a family in a condo though, I can guarantee that.

This is something else to consider as well. Vancouver and Victoria are both experiencing a massive shortage of GPs and specialists. That's only going to get worse if prices don't start to go level off.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Vancouver is the only place I know where if you don't live in the center of town it doesn't count as living in Vancouver.
If you move to London or New York do you expect to live in Manhatten or Kensington or Westminster with a view of the Houses of Parliment?

New Westminster and Surrey are all still part of Vancouver, as is Langley. It would help if there were a decent train service that ran up the valley all day and night granted but I doubt there's a more beautiful suburb in Canada than Maple Ridge or Mission and yet people here seem to think it's some kind of purgatory being inflicted on them that they have to live in a place that would be considered paradise by most in the world.

I really don't get it, I bought my first houses out in the valley, that paid for the down payment on my place in East Van, it's not the end of the world to bring your kids up in Poco then move into Vancouver later on if you want.

This is a big issue.
In many ways, Vancouver would be better off as one municipality and not a bunch of small ones that people disassociate with.

This image shows Toronto (not greater Toronto) overlaid on Vancouver and it would include all or Burnaby, New West, Most of Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Moody and Poco.

If all of those people felt that they were still living in "Vancouver" that would change people's perceptions a lot.

This is not to downplay the affordability issues Vancouver faces, but I know so many people who would never consider buying in places like New West or Poco; even though you're a 25 minute train ride from downtown Vancouver.

I've always said Vancouver's downtown is horribly located as well, by being way up in the NW corner.
Imagine it was located somewhere around New West, with transit moving in all directions away from there.
That would cut commute times down considerably and distribute traffic in multiple directions instead of one way.

So many different variables that have contributed to the issues we now face.

[boogerz]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

Another co-worker lives in Chilliwack, he mostly works at night so he avoids traffic but even that is still a 110Kkm trip that takes him just over an hour to do. If he comes in for 8am it is just under 2hrs.

I live in Burnaby, on the east side at the bottom of Burnaby mountain and it takes me 40 to 50 minutes in rush hour, that's about 20km.

I was commuting to Marpole from North Delta. 90 minutes in rush hour for 23km

As backed up as Calgary can be, at least there's a somewhat adequate highway system here

[Locke]

I can fix this.

Mandatory Military Service in Exchange for the right to own property in Canada.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by blankall

I see 2 houses listed.

The first is 1000sq feet.

The other states "House has little value, value in land." That means the house is beyond a few simple renovations and is likely a total tear down.

Sorry, misread the page, but there are houses in the 400,000 range.
I'm not arguing it's easy, but if you stop thinking the only acceptable house is a reletavily new place close to town it's far from impossible either.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

This is not to downplay the affordability issues Vancouver faces, but I know so many people who would never consider buying in places like New West or Poco; even though you're a 25 minute train ride from downtown Vancouver.

I've always said Vancouver's downtown is horribly located as well, by being way up in the NW corner.
Imagine it was located somewhere around New West, with transit moving in all directions away from there.
That would cut commute times down considerably and distribute traffic in multiple directions instead of one way.

So many different variables that have contributed to the issues we now face.

POCO and New West are hardly affordable anymore for most people. My sister bought her house in POCO for $300k back in 1997 and today the market value is about $1.1 million (based on what her neighbour just sold their identical house for). And we are talking about a really small 3 bedroom (2 of which are barely big enough for a child's bed), 1 bathroom house with no yard or basement.

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by boogerz

I was commuting to Marpole from North Delta. 90 minutes in rush hour for 23km

As backed up as Calgary can be, at least there's a somewhat adequate highway system here

Ugh, that's brutal. Any time you factor in a bridge the commute times skyrocket, people just can't drive across those things. I stayed away from those areas specifically for that reason.

[FlamesAddiction]

Yeah, distance means nothing when comparing Toronto and Vancouver. Vancouver lacks the highways and has way more bridge traffic.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

This is a big issue.
In many ways, Vancouver would be better off as one municipality and not a bunch of small ones that people disassociate with.

This image shows Toronto (not greater Toronto) overlaid on Vancouver and it would include all or Burnaby, New West, Most of Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Moody and Poco.

If all of those people felt that they were still living in "Vancouver" that would change people's perceptions a lot.

This is not to downplay the affordability issues Vancouver faces, but I know so many people who would never consider buying in places like New West or Poco; even though you're a 25 minute train ride from downtown Vancouver.

I've always said Vancouver's downtown is horribly located as well, by being way up in the NW corner.
Imagine it was located somewhere around New West, with transit moving in all directions away from there.
That would cut commute times down considerably and distribute traffic in multiple directions instead of one way.

So many different variables that have contributed to the issues we now face.

Poco and New West are 25 minutes from Vancouver the same way Aidrie is 15 minutes from Calgary.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Locke

I can fix this.

Mandatory Military Service in Exchange for the right to own property in Canada.

That or just tax the money coming in if you can't prove it's been taxed already.

That might require the banks to do a little diligence though.

[Fuzz]

In complicated situations like this, I always gotta ask, what do other countries do? What has been successful? Do governments look at that, or just come up with their own hair brained schemes and hope they work? Why is this what seams a unique problem to Canada?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

In complicated situations like this, I always gotta ask, what do other countries do? What has been successful? Do governments look at that, or just come up with their own hair brained schemes and hope they work? Why is this what seams a unique problem to Canada?

In Asia you just live at home
Get married then add a floor. Have a mistress? Add another floor.

[Fuzz]

No, I meant with the foreign buyers...

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

No, I meant with the foreign buyers...

oh. then the answer is who wants to go to countries other than Canada, UK and the US? Not enough to influence the market.

Here's a serious answer, foreign sales down in France
http://www.thelocal.fr/20160125/fran...roperty-market