Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[MarkyMark]

Greasy fuckin' Realtors man. I'm actually surprised it's going into effect so quickly, usually they drag their ass and we'd have to wait till the new year. I suppose you kind of have to or there would be this huge influx of people buying in to avoid the tax and prices would go up yet again.

[GLOW]

Spoiler!

when i read it i was like:

please don't be chinese please don't be chinese...

Mike Stewart of Century 21

[originalhypa]

hahahahahaha!!
You're on fire today GLOW.






"Hi, I'm Mike Stewart. I'm going to bang your wife later, and there is nothing you can do about it"

[Spoon]

Color me surprised if these people don't end up getting grandfathered. Giving people a week to prepare for a new tax seems ridiculous. But if Christy Clarke somehow manages to pull this off, good on her for showing some backbone.

[Ludepower]

Current deals should be honored or grandfathered. Or at least given another month to finish finalizing.
This will cause a lot of legal headache. At the end of the day its a matter of principal and a belief that our government can be trusted.

[westopher]

Originally Posted by Ludepower

Current deals should be honored or grandfathered. Or at least given another month to finish finalizing.

Why?
What loyalty should a government have to another countries citizens illegal (or even legal) outflow of cash?
Immigrants/permanent residents should be allowed to purchase as any Canadian can, and they are, but if you can't even legally live/work here, why should the government care about protecting your financial interest in a home purchase? This is a small step and will have little impact I'd bet, but I think its a very win/win measure for what they are trying to accomplish. Probably the first thing I've seen Krusty do that shows some initiative in protecting the public over taking easy money.

[Timpo]

Premier Clark rules out changes or presale exemptions to foreign buyer tax
ROB SHAW
Published on: July 27, 2016 | Last Updated: July 27, 2016 11:55 AM PDT

Premier rules out changes or exemptions to foreign buyer tax | Vancouver Sun


Premier Christy Clark (pictured at the foreign buyer tax announcement on Monday) has ruled out any changes to the proposed 15-per-cent surcharge. CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark has flatly ruled out changing her government’s foreign buyer tax to grandfather real estate deals and pre-sales that will close after the tax comes into effect.

“I appreciate this is going to create more work for developers, there’s no question about it,” she told reporters Wednesday. “But having said that, my job is to protect British Columbians to make sure we put British Columbians first. So we are not going to be exempting anyone, we are not exempting pre-sales, we are not amending the legislation to change pre-sales.”

Clark said her government is on “good legal ground” with the proposed law, which will levy a 15 per cent property transfer tax on Metro Vancouver real estate purchases by people who aren’t Canadian citizens or permanent residents starting Aug. 2.

People have a week to close their deals and take title before the tax applies, said Clark.

She rejected calls that government extend the tax timeline or grandfather in in-progress deals, amid complaints from the development industry the tax could cause chaos in the market.

“Doing anything different might have created a huge run on the property market,” Clark said.

Clark expressed little sympathy for foreign buyers who purchased pre-sales years ago but who will still be hit with the tax because their deals close and they receive title after Aug. 2.

“If somebody bought their home on pre-sale a year ago, they’ve probably seen a 15 per cent increase in the value of that home already in one year — that’s how silly this market has been,” she said. “This move is to try and make sure we end any distortions in the market, that we protect it and we put British Columbians first when it comes to buying homes.”

The government housing bill is currently up for debate at the legislature. It also enables the City of Vancouver to impose a vacancy tax, and ends self-regulation of the real estate industry.

[Spoon]

Foreigners can't vote, so fuck'em.

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by Ludepower

Current deals should be honored or grandfathered. Or at least given another month to finish finalizing.
This will cause a lot of legal headache. At the end of the day its a matter of principal and a belief that our government can be trusted.

If the purpose of the tax is to cool the market, then it needs to be sudden. If there was a grace period, there would have another spike in market activity.

Legal headaches? Crown lawyers get paid in salary, so maybe for foreign buyers trying to incorporate, assign their contracts, etc in order to evade taxes? Big deal... more money for the lawyers.

Foreign buyers already get the rule of law and certainty of land title. Taxes are a small price to pay for the value of the asset they're buying.

[Hondaracer]

people backing out of pre-sale developments due to a 15% tax?

makes no sense..

[eclipseman]

If people were to back out of deals due to the tax, that is great news for locals. More supply will be coming online, which will help cool the market a bit. Not great news for those homeowners who've already purchased a new home to move into, only to be stuck with two properties. However, I'm certain someone else will be in line to pick up their original properties...

[MarkyMark]

They're just whining hoping they can keep their 15% if they cry enough, most will cave and just pay it.

[dvst8]

Foreign owners who will pay the 15% tax will just tack that on to their sale price when they sell. I can see this slightly slow down sales but housing prices would only increase.

[westopher]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

people backing out of pre-sale developments due to a 15% tax?

makes no sense..

How so? You are telling me that a 50-100k increase overnight of your property purchase would just make no difference?
Not every foreign buyer has unlimited money.

[G]

Yea, this 15% does make a difference.

I know a purchaser who chose a property on the upper end of their price range and was able to find a property they liked. If this 15% kicked in, they would be forced to look into a lower bracket of the range.

IMO this seems like this affects a lot of people that are in the middle class overseas attempting to move here.

As for the numerous ridiculously wealthy mainland Chinese buyers, this does not affect them at all. If they were smart, I would even suspect them to diversify their RE portfolio in to the condo/apartment sector rather than single family homes or land. And for the buyer that is just trying to ship out their money in attempts to wash or get their money out of their country, they would be purchasing large commercial/industrial/retail buildings (no 15% tax).

[Spoon]

Happen to know a couple from the UK who's taking ownership in 2017. Pretty sure they'll be affected, and they are not well off either.

But the consensus is, if you bought a pre-built several years back. You can still make a profit even after the tax. For that couple, it just means they'll likely have to sell and keep renting. Don't think they can actually afford that tax.

[westopher]

Middle class people overseas aren't buying 500k shoeboxes in Vancouver in hopes of a new life in Canada haha.
I still don't know why anyone thinks they should just buy a house in a country they don't live in. It's not like I can just hop off a plane in Switzerland, buy a house and think that is a reasonable plan.

[G]

^Well, it depends on their situation too. In some cases they moved way and now they are moving back here too.

As for brand new immigrants, it depends on where they are living originally, lots of places have shitty conditions and moving provides a better life whether its through cleaner environment, schooling, kids futures etc etc

[westopher]

You're definitely right as there are so many situations that will be affected differently, but I think it's pretty reasonable to say what this targets is what's best for Canadian citizens which is what should matter to the Canadian government.
I want to be very clear I have no anti immigration sentiment, and no think veiled racism behind my post. I have a very serious anti investor sentiment though when it comes to a basic need in a Canadian city, and which is a clean and safe place to live. It's no longer a "well just don't buy" sort of situation, as rent has gotten outrageous as well unless you are locked in somewhere.

[Ludepower]

This 15% doesnt affect us locals and brownie points for doin it on an election year but
I just distrust how the government can just flip flop and implement new taxes.
Who's gonna be next on their hit-list without warning?

Im just looking it at the government is stupid side of the coin.

[westopher]

That's reasonable as this liberal government has given us plenty of reason to mistrust them, but even they understand they need to be reelected so they can't piss people off too badly.

[Armind]

Anyone currently living in downtown New West? Is it loud with all the trains?

[Carl Johnson]

Originally Posted by Ludepower

This 15% doesnt affect us locals and brownie points for doin it on an election year but
I just distrust how the government can just flip flop and implement new taxes.
Who's gonna be next on their hit-list without warning?

Im just looking it at the government is stupid side of the coin.

Realtors and real estate industry at large had it coming after the shenanigans that was extensively exposed by Globe and Mail.

For these foreigner investors, political risk given the heated market should have been a part of their DD when they decided to invest here. It is fair game.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by Armind

Anyone currently living in downtown New West? Is it loud with all the trains?

I can't comment on the exact location, but I live right across the river and assuming the building isn't too old and the windows are actually energy efficient (meaning some level of soundproofness) it shouldn't be too bad.

Originally Posted by Armind

So how long til we will see a price decrease in rents do you guys think?

I don't think the rent is going to be affected. It's still a supply-demand question. When the demand is outstripping supply, it's hard for rent to go down. If anything, given that units are more expensive now, those foreign landlords would be asking a slightly higher rent to compensate the difference.

But if there's a new building just completed, you can look around. Take Pacific One for example... there are easily 5-8 units looking to rent when I checked a few days back. So anything surrounding it would be affected. If one of the owners can't wait for the unit to sit empty, then that'd be the one to drop first.

[subordinate]

Originally Posted by Armind

Anyone currently living in downtown New West? Is it loud with all the trains?

Don't live in New West but my two cents.

You got 3 railroads, CPR, CN, SRY Lines. They run 24/7, keep that in mind. I was recently in Translink's New-west office and I don't know how those employees can stand all that train horn. You must go crazy.

I wouldn't buy a condo near those tracks.....especially when it's a summer night and you got a train blowing it's horn through a crossing, and the sheer noise vibrates through the air.

Go to a showing, ask the realtor - though, they'd probably be lying through their teeth.