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I know someone just picked up 16y old concrete high-rise in bby 1100sq for $840. :notbad: |
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Whether it was 2002 or 2022, yes there will always be a wide range in quality and craftsman ship. Our Yaletown condo (2007 build) had the cheapest cabinentry you'd ever see. And the top load washers they sourced all started failing around 5 years in. So some things never change. I think the biggest difference between 20 years ago and today is things today are SO much more expensive to replace/repair because everything nowadays is so damn complicated and/or fancy. Especially as building codes continue to require developers to be more energy efficient, that usually means more complications when it comes to repairs and maintenance. Our last condo (2020 build) had some issues with the hot water one time and all units were getting intermittent hot water. I feel like in the old days, a guy with a wrench shows up, finds the faulty part, fixes it, and you're done. But in our case, it was a computer issue causing it, thanks to our extremely complicated building controls system. It took 2 weeks to replicate the issue, troubleshoot it, and get it back to normal. Not cheap by any means. Buildings are like cars now. All that new technology can't be repaired easily, nor cheaply like we used to do. |
Few more thoughts actually. Elevators are all proprietary now to the manufacturer and they hold a monopoly when it comes to repairs and maintenance. Also, because developers have high costs, they charge $1000k per sq ft, and at that price, people expect "luxury". I think of it like what if Toyota, Honda, Kia and Nissan all disappeared, and the only cars we could buy are Audi, BMW and MB. That's kind of what condos are now. And now you only have "luxury" condos, with fancy features, all that stuff costs that much more to fix and maintain. Our developer installed Technogym equipment in the gym and when it died 15 months later, the repair and replacement costs were astronomical. They could have gone with cheaper stuff but didn't. Or like GS8 said, nowadays everyone gets integrated appliances to create a "luxury" kitchen but all that does is make repairs more of a headache. At least in the old days, it felt like there was more range in getting cheap vs luxury, and there was more belief that cheap buildings were cheaper to maintain and vice versa. |
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...zero-1.7648947 https://i.cbc.ca/1.7648952.175937606...=Resize%3D1280 https://i.cbc.ca/1.7649668.175943411...=Resize%3D1280 Ken Sim wants a 0% increase in property tax rate increases this year (surprise it's just before election season!). I've said many time that property tax rates are way too low in the lower mainland, it's a huge giveaway to homeowners, it robs cities of much needed revenue, AND it causes the wrong use of really valuable land (add more density). |
^ Gis collecting boomers would like to have a word with you |
this city is unaffordable enough as it is.. we don't have to max out every difficulty slider just cause there's room. |
Excuse me, $250K+ Revscene ballers. I saw all the cars you guys pulled up in last time. Bugattis, private jets (ahem, 68style and GS8) and Rolls Royces. mikemhg downplayed it and rolled up "only" in a new Mazda 3 while whitev70r wanted to maintain his anonymity with a freshly mounted ENVE wheels and nothing less than a Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupset and hand-crafted Columbus steel frame by old-world Italian craftsmen at Colnago. |
Yall too rich dukes with the Porsche |
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Weren't you buying a new lucid or tycan |
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Based on the temperature that I've read online, I don't think Sim's chances to get re-elected is particularly good. But again, I am not confident my impressions are indicative of the wider voter base's preference. On the note about CoV's (and maybe also Metro Vanocuver's?) property tax rate being too low, I'd have to disagree. It is only low when you look at it under the light of it being "a percentage of the property value". But the problem is -- our home prices are so high that even a low percentage of its value results in a pretty significant dollar amount. At the end of the day, $8000 is $8000, which is a lot. |
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With property tax rates we're distorting the market with artificially low rates rather than face the music and have the necessary conversation about what the best use of the land should be (way more housing) and what ends up happening is that home owners get a massive (like millions of dollars) tax free giveaway. Vancouver is home to some of the most valuable land in the world and we build SFH on them - it's completely nuts, it's like if Manhattan or Central HK were nothing but residential 2 story homes. Charging real tax rates would force turnover of land - turnover that would result in more housing being built which would then keep housing prices closer to normal and subsequently actual property taxes would be lower for most people b/c there'd be more people to share the burden. I'm not advocating that we immediately triple or quadruple property tax rates but the game we're playing makes no sense - we never should have kept lowering tax rates, if we just had let property taxes naturally increase it would have forced cities to rezone and build more housing (and more businesses etc) to spread the tax burden across more residents. Instead we let ~90% of residential lands be controlled by ~20-25% of the residents (estimates based on the few data points I've seen). I'm under no illusion that if we do what I propose that my property tax bill would likely triple - I'm zoned for 3FSR (8 stories) but I'm at barely .5FSR but I should be taxed based on best use and value and it'd be my choice to pay it or move. |
I can't imagine I have to pay Toronto rates though. And a significant chunk of our annual "taxes" aren't just property taxes but a bunch of other fees. Though if I need to double my annual payment, I would seriously just consider renting a house instead. |
It's become a circular problem though. House prices too high Property taxes too low We can't raise taxes because the housing costs are too high, but at the same time infrastructure in Vancouver is abysmal. School are overcrowded, recreation centers are overburdened, underbuilt, and old. We've hogtied ourselves into a cycle of mediocrity. |
It's a catch 22 problem similar to Translink. We need more capacity to convince more people to abandon their cars. We need more money to build capacity. We need to collect more fares to get more money We need more capacity to get more fares. They've upped density significantly without updating infrastructure. But so much of this density isn't revenue generating for the city but yet still draws on the same infrastructure so now there's more people but the same bucket of money. They need to find some way to draw more money from the rental group, but there's no good or real way to do it. |
Not to be one of those people who just yells from rooftops, but it's quite telling to me when all it takes is something like the OLYMPICS to come along and suddenly there's $2B dollars to build something (Canada Line) that completely changed the face of commuting and traffic for pretty much the entire lower mainland when you think of how much of South Surrey/White Rock/South Delta feeds into River Rock by bus nevermind all the airport traffic in and out plus the hour long bridge lineups out of Richmond every morning completely disappeared the day it opened. It couldn't happen because it was the right thing to do or 2 alleviate traffic for decades and save everyone so much time and emissions to be decimated, it had to happen to support a 2 week long fucking sporting event. Priorities manggggg :fulloffuck: |
wait.. people take transit?! the fuck...... |
Nah we love being mediocre at best Vancouver’s latest international ranking — 36 on a list of 48 cities — is a red flag https://vancouversun.com/opinion/col...-is-a-red-flag |
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For anyone saying public transportation, it doesn't work, at least not how we have planned now. We don't have anywhere near the density required to make Translink viable, let alone profitable. Translink runs one of the longest (if not the longest) service distance in the world for metro transportation, and yet we are far far from being one of the most populous metros in the world. The only viable solution for YVR Translink is to get every city mayors to sit down and agree on a major plan change. No if or buts, either you are in or you'd be left out. Simple as that. Each city needs to run their own network independently according to their needs and fundings, and such network all connects to 1 or 2 hubs with huge parkings (like towers or soccer fields worth of parking) in their city, and then translink build a underground fast transportation that runs only through these hubs (no more than say 2 in each city). Keep throwing money into something that doesn't work is not going to magically solve its problem (low ridership average vs. the service area). A lot of people I know who drive into the city doesn't mean that they really want to. But going with public transportation means adding an hour or 2 to their daily commute/other travel. Some park and ride's parking fee is as much as the gas/electric fee if one's vehicle is efficient enough. I don't mind being taxed move on property tax if that's meant to truly improve public transportation. But how the Translink is proposed/laid out right now, not a chance they would get another cent from me. |
you guys actually read the report right hong kong is one rank higher than vancouver in economy:lawl: |
I am can't seem to wrap my head around BIC_BAWS since he came back from Asia. I can't tell if he's been hacked, brainwashed, or a very confused young man who just saw the world outside of Vancouver. :lol |
Low key I hate hong kong transit. There’s no express trains so a 15 minute hop between boroughs in NYC is a 45 minute ordeal from the island to MK/KT/Sha Tin. I drive a lot in HK. feels like car guy life is hard Cops aren't just coming after honda ricers, VW is no go too. Why tf is parking more expensive than Manhattan … and salaries lower ? Sure there is "less" crime But maybe you didn't go to North Point at night? Did your parents never get robbed because mine defs did, even in the nice parts. It's also more expensive than New York. Are you doing private housing in Sheung Wan / South Island, or government subsidized in KT/Lohas Park? I can kind of afford Sheung Wan/Mid Levels but most of my QoL would be the my parents - parents spot at fam garage, Clearwater bay membo In NY tho, I'm moving into a Gramercy / Park Ave address next week & if I want to be cheap, I can get a room in Bushwick for $1300, be around the best techno music and creatives in the city. Are you paying for private school? In NY I can send a kid to Stuy / Brooklyn Tech for free and land them in the Cornell > IB/PE/Big Tech pipeline Specific to Van JDMDreams/Hehe got the whole funding issue right with translink, perhaps the wrong structural suggestion.. 1) WTF have you seen what happens when each city does its own thing? York Region/Peel Region got like 6 different shitty bus systems. 2) Translink are already starting MTR style land development project https://buzzer.translink.ca/2023/03/...20Metro%202050. |
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Real estate is a huge sink, money is unproductive for like 4-5 years. Canada just made it the whole economy while it's just a tax avoidance scheme / leverage play in the US. |
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