Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Timpo]

B.C. to spend $355M on affordable housing, premier says
Christy Clark says the money will be spent over five years to house low and moderate income earners
CBC News Posted: Feb 12, 2016 11:50 AM PT Last Updated: Feb 12, 2016 12:46 PM PT

B.C. to spend $355M on affordable housing, premier says - British Columbia - CBC News


The B.C. government will commit $355 million toward creating roughly 2,000 new affordable housing units, Premier Christy Clark told reporters Feb. 12. (Volodymyr Kyrylyuk/Shutterstock)

The B.C. government will contribute $355 million to construct or renovate 2,000 affordable housing units across the province, says Premier Christy Clark.

Clark and Housing Minister Rich Coleman made the announcement in Vancouver on Friday.

Clark says the money will be spent over the next five years and is the largest single affordable housing investment in B.C.'s history. The units are aimed at housing people with low and moderate incomes.

"We know there is a big issue with respect to the cost of housing in the Lower Mainland, and this is intended to help alleviate that — to just make life a little more affordable for people in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country," Clark said.


Premier Christy Clark made the housing announcement, Feb 12, at a news conference with Housing Minister Rich Coleman. (CBC/ Farrah Merali)

The province says it has earmarked $50 million of the investment for each of the first two years, $75 million in the third year and $90 million in the final two years.

Details are still being worked out, and B.C. Housing says it will seek proposals from municipalities, non-profit societies and other community groups interested in creating appropriate developments.

Mayor offers city land for housing

Lack of affordable housing has been a hot topic especially in Metro Vancouver, where the price of a home is beyond the reach of even high-income earners.

Earlier this month, Mayor Gregor Robertson offered city land to go toward social housing.

Tony Roy, with the B.C Non Profit Housing Association, welcomed the announcement, saying there's still plenty of work to be done. That's where the federal governments needs to step in, Roy said.

"The social housing that we did build is so old now, so we're going to need to spend, we think, $190 million just to make that stuff livable, right?

"This is a very good announcement, but if all that money is spent making the old stuff liveable, the federal package is going to mean that when you combine it with what cities are doing, we can actually build new housing."

The funds will be distributed over a five-year-period starting in 2016 and ending in 2020.

[Harvey Specter]

So in other words she'll be helping developers build studio sized units for families and sell them for $500k. Nice.

[GLOW]

i'll say it again...bang for buck put these out on cheap land or something that looks nicer but same idea
i'll never understand waterfront and other expensive land used for social housing.

[Hondaracer]

lol.. like how can anyone with any sort of knowledge of the situation look at Clark's promise and think that will help them? lol

the people who are on twitter raging about "affordability" cant afford a 200k condo, what is this money going to change? lol what a fucking waste of breathe

[Mr.Money]

at least it aint going to homeless who's life mission is to smash your car window & spend any $ on drugs for life till they die.

[Harvey Specter]

Reported today. I mentioned shady brokers a few pages back which should be a massive concern for everyone because there's a lot of people holding mortgages for properties which they technically can't afford but they're able to obtain one by submitting false documents.

The Financial Institutions Commission has ordered a Surrey woman not to pose as a licenced mortgage broker or help prospective homeowners apply for financing.

FICom found that Ranminder Gill had misrepresented herself through advertising in the Indo-Canadian Voice real estate section last fall. Chris Carter, registrar of mortgage brokers, ordered Gill to “cease and desist engaging in unregistered mortgage broker activity,” in a Jan. 28 ruling.

The government regulator launched an undercover investigation into Gill’s practices after she contacted the Office of Mortgage Brokers in January 2015 “inquiring about whether an unregistered person could collect a referral fee from a mortgage broker.”

She had previously been registered as a submortgage broker from 2009 to 2013, but claimed last year simply to be referring people to brokers.

But investigators found documentation to show she was directly involved in brokering mortgages for clients.

And they found copies of her ads in the Voice, which said: “when everyone says “NO” call Rani Gill and get your mortgage done.”

The ad also claimed she looked after “all your mortgage needs.”

An investigator posed as a client looking to buy a rental property in June.

Gill said during the meeting “that on the mortgage application, she would disclose to the lender that the investigator intended to live in the investment property,” Carter’s ruling said.

“Ms. Gill held herself out to the investigator as if she was a registered submortgage broker.”

She also told the undercover investigator that she would provide “a gift letter” that could be used to show the lender the investigator had a big enough down payment,

“This conduct demonstrates a willingness to deceive lenders when submitting mortgage applications to them,” Carter said. “Not only are lenders put at risk of providing the mortgage funds based on inaccurate information, but borrowers find themselves in a mortgage they can’t afford.”

She said Gill should have known the rules, given that she was previously registered.

“Ms. Gill not only demonstrated a willingness to be deceitful, dishonest and misleading with lenders, she encouraged a potential client to do so as well,” the ruling said.

Carter said the matter was too urgent to send for a hearing, which would take at least three months to schedule.

Gill’s realtor husband Jas Gill was also recently disciplined by his regulatory body.

The Real Estate Council of B.C. posted a consent order Jan. 18, 2016, which said Jas Gill “allowed his unlicenced assistant to carry out lease negotiations in relation to the purchase and sale of a property.”

That assistant was his wife Ranminder, who Jas Gill claimed was a licenced mortgage broker.

He said they work together “since mortgage and real estate business go together.”

Jas Gill was reprimanded and had to pay enforcement expenses of $1,500 to the council as well as take a remedial course.

kbolan@postmedia.com

Read more: Mortgage broker order to ?cease and desist?

[Mike Oxbig]

Originally Posted by GLOW

i'll say it again...bang for buck put these out on cheap land or something that looks nicer but same idea
i'll never understand waterfront and other expensive land used for social housing.

City of Richmond does not allow this. I tried

[Nlkko]

Like building condo on False Creek for crackheads?

[Timpo]

Originally Posted by Nlkko

Like building condo on False Creek for crackheads?

Providing housing would only work for people that are hard working and have good work ethics but getting paid low wages. Also they need to have good sense of financial planning and not over spend on unnecessary goods.

As for people with drug abuse problem, providing housing would NOT fix the problem. Simple as that.

[asian_XL]

Instead of finding lands to build affordable houses, they should develop new communities near Greater Vancouver. I don't mind living in Gibsons or along Sunshine Coast hwy if they build new bridges and hwy going there.

New houses should be sold to local families and could not be resold within certain years.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by GLOW

i'll say it again...bang for buck put these out on cheap land

Originally Posted by Mike Oxbig

City of Richmond does not allow this. I tried

since when is land in richmond cheap? it would need to go through an approval process (i'm sure it wouldn't pass) since BC Housing provides new construction builds or renos like the SRO project.

can't say about richmond, but they seem to be OK in vancouver. i walked by 1 near the DTES. it looks a lot better than the one i posted. not sure why richmond is special unless it's due to the soil/land or something political?

did a quick google search to try to find the one i saw but found an article that people are already trying this in Canada where housing is needed.

Vancouver Shipping Container Homes Set Example For Rest Of Canada

comment at the end by the city counsellor...land is expensive...yes it is...

[Timpo]

The only reason housing price is going up is because land price is going up.

BC Government or some municipalities with extra land should just give out land for free. Seriously, if we put some conditions, it will solve some problem and still keep crackheads away from abusing the system.

Free land is a good idea and happened several times before in Canada.
Nine Canadian towns just giving away free land : The Loop

I always wonder why we're fighting for land, because we have one of the lowest population density in the world with lots of extra land. This is Canada.

[Hondaracer]

There's no land left to give away..look around..

This isn't Vegas where you can expand for hundreds of miles, virtually all developable land is taken. Until you start taking land from the ALR and parks etc. there's nothing left

[unit]

Originally Posted by GLOW

i'll say it again...bang for buck put these out on cheap land or something that looks nicer but same idea
i'll never understand waterfront and other expensive land used for social housing.

people who have low income need to be near stuff, because often they don't have cars. if you put them in buttfuck nowhere then thats not too ideal for them. yeah, the richest parts of town dont make sense but there are a lot of social housing neighborhoods in suburbs that arent way the fuck out there too.

[Timpo]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

There's no land left to give away..look around..

This isn't Vegas where you can expand for hundreds of miles, virtually all developable land is taken. Until you start taking land from the ALR and parks etc. there's nothing left

What are you talking about? BC (or Canada) has shit load of empty land.
I think people are hesitant to move Northern BC (or northern part of Southern BC) is probably the climate issue.
I know that climate shouldn't be a devastating problem since we have people living in Alaska and Yukon Territory.

If you look around north, you will find more land.





I think this is a great idea because the government doesn't have to pay for people to move. Because people will pay out of pocket to build their own house.

That $355 million, they could just spend on building up a new community.

Also adding conditions like "must be willing to spend at least $175,000" would be a great idea because we would keep crackheads out and let young family build new home. It could be even lower than $175,000 if it's a condo.
Look around in the states where they have lots of land. If you have that kinda money, you can buy a decent house/condo.

It will be good for responsible people who are willing to work hard but getting low wages.

In reality, I know that there are legislation problems and all the politics involved. I don't even know if it's doable with $355 million, but much better than spending tax money so that they can build bunch of $600,000 "affordable" housing.

[Hondaracer]

There are 3000sq foot houses for under 200k within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, thousands of them.

People just don't want to move to those communities. Most have a sense of entitlement that they deserve to live in Vancouver, they could never even accept to move to surrey let alone hope, merrit, kamloops, etc

[Timpo]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

There are 3000sq foot houses for under 200k within a 3 hour drive of Vancouver, thousands of them.

People just don't want to move to those communities. Most have a sense of entitlement that they deserve to live in Vancouver, they could never even accept to move to surrey let alone hope, merrit, kamloops, etc

For a moment I was skeptical so I did a Google search and came across this:

Turns out that you don't even have to go as far as Kamloops.

Located in: HOPE, BC
Built in: 1982
Price: $239,888
3300 SqFt, 5 bed room, 3 bath room

Distance from Vancouver, BC: 153km, 1hr 34min drive (According to Google Map)

48270 Cottonwood Road, Hope, BC, House For Sale | REW.ca

[Timpo]

If people want to commute, I guess they want to stay in the proximity.

In Japan, they are known for one of the biggest rush hour in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_hour


Rush hour at Shinjuku Station, Tokyo. The station is the world's busiest,[3] used by approximately 3.8 million passengers per day in 2008.

I guess if you want to buy a cheap house, you will have to sacrifice the convenience.

It's too bad that Canada makes one of the best bullet train in the world and all we do is to export them to China and Europe because our own government is too poor or not willing to spend any money.
High Speed Trains - Train Manufacturer - Bombardier Transportation


If Canada buys bullet train to connect Hope and Vancouver for example, it would probably take 30 min or less. The rail will be shortened to 100km instead of 150+km because they will most likely build it straight line as possible.

However I would not happy if our tax goes up, so I guess it's not an easy solution..

[Ronin]

Will never happen. Japan has the population to support something like that. Cost-per-capita doesn't make sense for something like that here.

[Timpo]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Will never happen. Japan has the population to support something like that. Cost-per-capita doesn't make sense for something like that here.

Then they should be spending that $355 million for different cause then.
"Lack of affordable housing especially in Metro Vancouver" is sort of ridiculous topic, all people need to do is to move somewhere affordable.

Tokyo, London, Paris, New York, Vancouver...maybe those cities and affordable housing should not be mentioned in a same sentence.

[StylinRed]

if you move people elsewhere without addressing affordable housing, you'll have a lack of workforce for lower paying jobs in metro-van

also if you expect people to move towards smaller communities, well not only do those cities need to provide the jobs to accommodate that influx of population, they also need the infrastructure, and $50m a year isn't going to be able to provide that to those communities

[asian_XL]

^ sad thing is more and more old people live in city of Vancouver...that will eventually become affordable and push new generation out, unless they building a lot of skyscrapers like in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, otherwise moving the city north and east are one of the solution.

who remembers what Richmond looks like 30 years ago. Farm land everywhere.

[GS8]

*Change of topic*

There was an open house today one block from where I live. Instead of the realtor setting up the signs that guide you directly to the house, he set up the signs so that you actually end up touring the neighbourhood before ending up at the house. Maybe it's always been done but it's the first time I've seen it. Good strategy.

House was surrounded by BMWs, Lexuseseses and even a Cayman (who I watched do the tour). No one in my neighbourhood owns any of these types of cars. Hell a Z4 looks out of place. More and more homes in my neighbourhood are turning into investment / rentals. A house down the street sold after its first open house and no doubt this one will sell as well.

Few weeks ago, a house (basic bitch house) sold for $1 million which was $350,000 above asking price. Perhaps the wave is spreading east and could eventually hit the Fraser Valley?

[Hondaracer]

Already there in a lot of places.

New builds in Fraser heights on 3500 sq foot lots selling for 1.25

Lots of houses in the neighborhood selling for 1.6 and more. A 3 minute drive to guildford

[nah]

Our government needs to be less of a bitch and follow Australia's lead.

Australia forces sales of foreign-owned properties after breach of ownership laws