Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[JDMDreams]

Nah bro, all the first time home buyers 10 year + is too old. I can't live in shit like this. And I'm like more than you can afford pal. You can't even afford the seventies apartments.

[PeanutButter]

Wait, what's the definition of a Bus exchange? That's not the same as a bus stop right?

[TypeRNammer]

I live right by Joyce Collingwood and there's a lot development going on right now, handful of low rises popping up and I believe another tall tower is popping up too. Also land assemblies for sale also.

[TypeRNammer]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Wait, what's the definition of a Bus exchange? That's not the same as a bus stop right?

Bus exchanges usually refers to multiple buses at a terminus point which also includes SkyTrain stations

[Great68]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Wait, what's the definition of a Bus exchange? That's not the same as a bus stop right?

No, typically bus exchanges are where multiple routes converge. Usually they'll have multiple "bus bays".


For example, Newton exchange on 72nd in Surrey.

[GS8]

Originally Posted by Harvey Specter

It's about time local developers realize that Vancouver isn't Singapore, NYC, or London, and charging $3000sq/ft was never going to be sustainable.

You know damn right!

Vancouver can't even find sponsorships for major events anymore. It's just a lame dump of a city compared to who we aspire to be.

Though I'm sure if they sold tickets for these, they'd be scalped.

Originally Posted by mikemhg

I'd like to see these developers pivot more to low-rise more accessible buildings in this city.

As Harvey said, this isn't HK, or NY.

Enough with these "luxury" style buildings/towers with tons of amenities and all that crap.

We don't need it.

At least they brought back the 4th floor

Spoiler!

YouTube

[zyzzjr]

What is the difference between rapid transit and bus exchange?

[supafamous]

https://www.burnabynow.com/local-new...lation-7780343
https://twitter.com/lauvande/status/...R0WW1UsaoNvpqw

Burnaby's mayor is just losing his shit over the provincial legislation and he's making it clear he doesn't give two shits about the housing crisis. He's not the only civic leader in Burnaby bitching and moaning about it either. These folks are really showing their true colours when it comes to whose side they are on.

[AstulzerRZD]

Originally Posted by Euro7r

The key take away lately on RS for financial freedom is have rich parents or a inheritance LOL. Jokes aside, I don't got lick $$ to my name to spend on things after the house purchase. Mortgage rates are brutal. My dad being typical dad, told me I'll never pay off my mortgage LOL, very encouraging. Time to get back to the grind.

Had to get in on this lol

Sister and I born 96/97, parents came over from Asia as the handover was happening.
Back in Asia they were kinda balling with 6 fig jobs in the 90s but spent a lot of that on the move - re-establishing ourselves here & building their business.

I think if I were born 93/94 instead & did a 4 year degree, I'd be in a much better place.
Pre-sale condos and property was pretty out of reach by the time I Was ready.

• Personally, moving to Toronto / the states un-fucked my finances. Toronto launched my career & I was making Vancouver full time money through school. Seattle rent was 1.8k/mo in a really awesome spot, my income 2.5X'd for the same work in tech, and you can buy detached/new build townhouse for 1M.
• No inheritance, contributing 300 a month to parents (they're savvy enough with the finances and trip planning that the money gets put to use)
• Biz class/first class travel a couple times a year via a ton of points that I did with the credit card game during college (RBC product switch trains man....)
• Despite living in NYC now & associated expenses, still saving some but no aspirations for a NYC mortgage - hunting for a rent-stabilized apartment I'll eventually renovate.
• Might get in on a project where my friends and planning to buy land and redevelop again in Vancouver.

Parents wise:

• Having worked in hospitality and balled in HK, they know how to spend lmao but generally keep it under control
• HELOC my parents used as emergency fund to help cover education in Ontario (shortfall vs loans) and that one year I had a hella tax bill from US income is paid off
• Sister bought a pre-sale condo at Richmond Center for 800k at the peak of pricing in 2021. I think they took out some HELOC money to help with her downpayment but I have a feeling I will be getting a call to cover a bunch of shortfall when she has to complete the assignment (85k income working marketing job, 360k mortgage at 4X income, so a 280k shortfall)

If I moved back to Van and my income got hella slashed.... here's how I'd beat the odds
1) Work hospitality in my free time off the backs of my parents connections. With the goal of securing funding and access to other business opportunities:
Weekday & weekend nights: serve/bartend where real estate/entrepreneur peeps hangout
Weekend mornings: work a private club/golf club

2) Really try to optimize where I live for meeting other people tryna make a move or two
Building with a communal rooftop that people hangout at & has event space for me to host regular cocktail events
Location has to be downtown - opportunity cost for fitness/dating/social life is too high otherwise

3) No car (300 payment, 200 insurance, 200 gas would be like half of rent), or an Abarth/MX-5 beater if I need a car for work. Modo ND2 Miata will do for date nights.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by zyzzjr

What is the difference between rapid transit and bus exchange?

For this legislation rapid transit is just Skytrain and not stuff like the R-line buses. Bus exchange is for any "depot-like" stops such as Phibbs and Kootenay Exchange. Most of the big exchanges are at Skytrain stations so not really that many.

The legislation does specify that the housing minister has the power to change the rules on this whenever they like so they can later add bus rapid transit to the list if they like or if streetcars ever show up they can add that.

[snowball]

8 stories at 800m away from rapid transit seems a bit crazy to me, we need more transitional neighbourhoods with a variety of housing types, not 8 story "low" rises sandwiching duplexes

Next up will be legislation for density near 4-lane roads probably

[whitev70r]

Smoke?

Oakridge development 'still active,' construction firm says, despite dispute with Westbank Corp. in Ontario

https://vancouversun.com/business/oa...orp-in-ontario

Canadian construction giant EllisDon continues to operate at the Oakridge Park mega-project despite having recently vacated a development site in Ontario and initiating court action against its same development partner, Vancouver’s Westbank Corp., alleging payment delinquencies.

“I can confirm we are still active at Oakridge, but cannot comment on our relationship with Westbank, given the state of it being before the courts,” said EllisDon spokesperson Dustin Luchka in an email.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by snowball

8 stories at 800m away from rapid transit seems a bit crazy to me, we need more transitional neighbourhoods with a variety of housing types, not 8 story "low" rises sandwiching duplexes

So the rule isn't to say you need to build 8 stories but only that the cities must allow up to 8 stories. In reality very few will be built that high b/c the floor space limit of 3.0 (cities can opt to allow even more density though) will mostly mean builders will build between 5-6 stories in most cases (imagine 2500sf per floor on a 4000sf lot which leads to 5 stories). The rule allows for different shapes and sizes so someone could build a relatively skinny tall building or a short fat one or a mix (townhouse base with a skinny tower attached to it).

As for transition areas - all of the areas next to these are likely to be zoned for 5 stories (FSR of 1.5 is the guess) so we will get some weird transitions early on but over time it'll even out as new housing gets developed. Edit: If you go around Kerrisdale you'll see 15-20 story towers mixed in with SFHs and it's not particularly weird - it's really nicely done and a great example of how to add all this density.

Originally Posted by snowball

Next up will be legislation for density near 4-lane roads probably

That's covered by my last point - the other bill that came out the week before says anything close to frequent transit service (15 min intervals) is allowed up to 6 units and the expectation is that it'll be 5 stories or so at a FSR of 1.5. That covers practically all of the core lower mainland and if it doesn't you can build 4 units at probably 1.2FSR at 4 stories.

[RabidRat]

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

• Personally, moving to Toronto / the states un-fucked my finances. Toronto launched my career & I was making Vancouver full time money through school. Seattle [...] income 2.5X'd for the same work in tech

Nice! Replace "Seattle" with "Bay Area" and that was me!

I also had an easier time in Toronto than my friends back in Vancouver, making about 1.5x what they did as a new grad (though it was kind of a wash because they saved more by living at home).

I also had a 2.5x jump on that going from Toronto to the states. And after working here almost 9 years, that has quadrupled.

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

• Despite living in NYC now & associated expenses, still saving some but no aspirations for a NYC mortgage - hunting for a rent-stabilized apartment I'll eventually renovate.

Wow. It's a thing over there for tenants to do renovations on their own dime? I guess the rent control is just that valuable.

At the height of the pandemic, Peloton was hiring aggressively, and they're in Manhattan. My wife and I have always enjoyed the city, and were really tempted to just up and move there. But we'd just bought a house, and I was also focused hard on shipping my product at work. I bet it would've been a life-changing experience.

What's it like living in NYC? Does the magic of Christmas, NYE, and riding that subway ever get old? Can you speak the New Yorker accent? Can you get away with having a fun car in NYC, or is it the cost & inconvenience so prohibitive that you probably really have to give it up? New York pizza: how do you really feel about it?

[6793026]

BTW - those who didn't pay their taxes on their properties & penalties, those are up for auction.

"The top bid appeared to be $6 million for a property at 8555 Cambie that has an assessed value of $10.2 million. The upset price the bidder would have to pay is $21,448.07."

It wasn't like most auctions. There was no fast-talking professional auctioneer, no gavel, and not much drama or colour. A city staffer sat in the mayor's chair and picked out the bids at a somewhat leisurely pace.

This part was hilarious - "Many auctions also are attended by sharp-dressed businesspeople. The bidders in this case were a lot more casually dressed, and younger."
Pic shows a lot of them were asian + just puffy jackets..
There are a lot of rich people still. I'm just poor LOL.

[Alpine]

Good luck to those taking transit... Our bus system sucks and our skytrains are already at/past peak capacity. We'll need to double the # of skytrains (once a minute) to have a chance at meeting the population growth.

[JDMDreams]

Yes our transit system is shit. I don't know how that no minimum parking rule is gonna play out. Doesn't matter if your live in a hub, no one is gonna take 3 hours to transit one way to work in the pissing rain 9 months out of the year. Just cuz you live in a hub doesn't mean your work is a transit hub. They should just build at new dt in Surrey or something so people don't have to travel to dt. But then most people who work in dt can pretty much remote anyways.

[68style]

https://buzzer.translink.ca/tag/awards/

[EvoFire]

For those that keep moaning that our transit sucks, GVRD has one of the most expansive systems in North America. Can't help it if you move to Chilliwack and need to commute to DT.

Canada Line planning was extremely short sighted but the system is there and they are expanding it. WCE can be problematic due to break downs, fallen trees, or bears, but it moves a ton of people and makes Coquitlam or Abby viable cities to live in.

I worked in Richmond at No2 road a decade ago. I had a coworker that lived in Langley and he took the bus to work everyday. I asked him why he didn't buy a car? He said the bus took him an hour everyday, and 90mins on a bad day. Car isn't going to be a whole lot better and on a bad day, driving a car would have been just as bad.

The whole buildup around transit? It needs to be done one way or another and it's a chicken and egg scenario. If there's no people they can't build transit, if there's no transit there's no people. So they are tackling the people side of the equation first. City center zone congestion price will never fly so this is the alternative of providing more housing and reducing car dependence.

Also keep in mind, the newest kids joining the workforce, chances are they don't drive. Owning a car isn't appealing to them. My SIL is 27, she has her N, and my in-laws tried giving her their old car. She didn't drive it, she walked 4 blocks to the Skytrain instead and they ended up selling the car. Give her the chance she'll pick a condo on or near one of these transit hubs. The only thing missing now is the stacking concept HK uses where there's a medium sized mall attached to transit hubs, that serves the local populace living in the 4-8 towers above the mall. Dare I say we are moving towards that model with Metrotown/Station Square, Brentwood, and Lougheed City all built in that kind of model. That's Burnaby, but I'm going to expect that in Vancouver and Richmond soon as well with Oakridge, and soon Lansdowne being redeveloped.

[Traum]

I used to think our public transit sucks, and in many ways, they still kind of do. But over the past few months when I kept reading about how various LRT projects are failing big time in other parts of Canada (eg. Ottawa, Toronto), we suddenly don't look nearly as bad anymore.

[68style]

We don't have the population density to drive a full out transit system like people might be used to coming from places like HK etc

It's just not there.

That said, I can't for the life of me understand why they didn't just put an express train down the middle of Hwy 99... if you shipped in all the people from White Rock/Langley/Surrey from a central parking point by train they wouldn't even need to build some monolithic bridge or second tunnel.

[Razor Ramon HG]

People that think our transit system sucks have clearly not taken transit in other North American cities.

You can't compare Vancouver to HK, Seoul, Tokyo, etc.

[68style]

Most USA cities are still running on a "transit is for poor people and minorities" system

You ever look at a bus in Los Angeles? You'd think the windows are tinted with all that darkness, but it's cuz there ain't no white people on them at all.

[Hondaracer]

As someone who almost never used transit, and is now a transit user, I will say it works pretty great for me, Bus/Skytrain. I get pretty far for $8 a day or whatever it is

[Razor Ramon HG]

Originally Posted by 68style

Most USA cities are still running on a "transit is for poor people and minorities" system

You ever look at a bus in Los Angeles? You'd think the windows are tinted with all that darkness, but it's cuz there ain't no white people on them at all.

This reminds me of a fun fact.

In Okinawa, most people drive unlike the rest of Japan.

The reason being that when the USA used it as their base in WW2, they invested heavily infrastructure to move around their vehicles and equipment.

The USA didn't hand Okinawa back to Japan until the 1970s, so public transit was always an after thought as folks got used to driving around.