Metro Vancouver housing costs among the highest in the world: survey

[Harvey Specter]

Can't really say this is shocking but...

Metro Vancouver is one of the five least affordable cities to buy a home among major markets in half-a-dozen countries, largely because of “prescriptive” land-use policies, according to survey by a group of land-use consultants.

These “prescriptive” policies, the consultants argue in the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, including British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve, restrict the supply of land available for building homes and drive up prices.

Metro Vancouver sits fourth on Demographia’s 2009 list of least affordable cities, with a median house price at 8.4 times the median income.

Demographia defines affordable home prices as three times a city’s median income or less.

Victoria, at seventh, Kelowna, at 19th and Abbotsford, at 25th, also made the list of “severely unaffordable” markets.

The Demographia report noted that there are fewer American cities on the 2009 least-affordable list compared with the 2008 list because of declining prices. The cities to see the steepest price drops across all nations were the ones that saw prices rise the highest and fastest.

Metro Vancouver fell behind Gold Coast in Australia, at No. 3, Honolulu, Hawaii, at No. 2, and Australia’s Sunshine Coast, which is in top spot on the least affordable list.

Demographia surveyed Canadian cities with metropolitan populations of more than 100,000, and 10 of them made it on the list of “most affordable,” with Winnipeg being the largest of them.

The survey was conducted by Wendell Cox, an urban-planning policy consultant who has done work for groups including the Frontier Centre, a Winnipeg-based think-tank, and Hugh Pavletich, a New-Zealand-based commercial property developer.

The researchers, along with urban planning professor Shlomo Angel who wrote a preface, are releasing the report today. In it, they argue for loosening of regulations that limit the amount of land available for urban development.

Protecting green spaces, either to conserve farm land or create parks, “is indeed a lofty and sensible goal,” Angel writes in the preface, but “the protection of open space is not without cost.”

Although planners try to use the higher cost of land to encourage higher density and the creation of more compact cities, Angel argues that few residents in existing neighbourhoods of such cities support increasing density.

[asian_XL]

think about it, if you have 400K, would you buy a property in Calgary or Regina or Surrey?
I don't see regulation will do so much to the price. People prefer Vancouver.

[hotjoint]

everything is expensive here but people still find a way to live

[unit]

^yeah by renting in basement suites or living in surrey/langley and commuting to work in bby/van even though they make decent money..

either that or renting a nice place and having little to no savings.

[Ducdesmo]

^ or you can live at home with your parents until you are 30 when you have a decent downpayment..
I mean, an apartment in Surrey cost $250k. If you have $50k down and make around $50,000 a year, it will still take you around 20 years to pay it off...LOL.

[AVS_Racing]

cough* sell drugs Cough COugh* lol

[Armind]

^ No kidding eh lol..

[kuri]

Here's the full report in PDF format from Demographia:
http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf (722KB)

We beat high profile cities like New York and London in being least affordable. Yay?

[q0192837465]

How about Hong Kong?

[Synaptik]

vancouver's housing price is a direct result of mainlanders and hk immigrants coming here and buying up everything in sight.

also lol@rmd acura and rmd automall dealers. never had to work for a sales ever.

[q0192837465]

Originally Posted by Synaptik

vancouver's housing price is a direct result of mainlanders and hk immigrants coming here and buying up everything in sight.

also lol@rmd acura and rmd automall dealers. never had to work for a sales ever.

That's very true. In fact, 1M Cdn (7M HKD) houses are very common in HK. We think of 1M houses being outrageous, they think it's a bargain.

[GordonTse]

why does everyone think surrey is even cheap to live? even the new single family houses are going for $5-700g in cloverdale. no homes are cheap. even in the slums.

[unit]

^cheapER. that same home in vancouver is worth over a mill.

[GordonTse]

Originally Posted by unit

^cheapER. that same home in vancouver is worth over a mill.

true, theres some houses that are over a mill here, worth 3+ in vancouver probably.

[Synaptik]

Originally Posted by GordonTse

why does everyone think surrey is even cheap to live? even the new single family houses are going for $5-700g in cloverdale. no homes are cheap. even in the slums.

its all relative, brah. surrey is cheap compared to anywhere else in metro vancouver.

[f00tzilla]

white rock in surrey ain't cheap the houses around there go for 1-2 mill there :/

[BNR32_Coupe]

There's nothing to complain about. Look to the north and we got a nice view of the rockies. We got lots of hills, too, so look to the south and you see richmonds city scape glimmering at night. Look south east and notice the kickass sunset. We got lots of trees around, the air is crisp and fresh, everythings green and nice (when its sunny).

Go to a different city, like LA, and you'll see a lot of the "ghetto". Go to Toronto and it's way too packed, no scenic view. Go to Tokyo and all you'll see is concrete or glass. We put "Beautiful British Columbia" on our license plates, jack up housing costs, and boast the #2 - 3 best city in the world to live in for a reason.

[E-40six]

Originally Posted by BNR32_Coupe

There's nothing to complain about. Look to the north and we got a nice view of the rockies. We got lots of hills, too, so look to the south and you see richmonds city scape glimmering at night. Look south east and notice the kickass sunset.

[Synaptik]

except it rains or snows for 70% of the year.

[iwantaskyline]

Drug dealing, ie. BC BUD has a contribution to the housing prices to I believe. At least thats what I heard.

[BNR32_Coupe]

Originally Posted by Synaptik

except it rains or snows for 70% of the year.

so what, we live in a MILD climate. nothing is too intense, mostly a little bit of every type of weather. compare that to hurricanes in the tropics or florida, hot burning sun of nevada, smoggy air in crowded asian cities, and frigid temperatures in a lot of places in europe. no matter where you go, there's always something to complain about.

Vancouver, like all cities, has problems too. But we're #3 in the world for a reason. if you're complaining about the stuff we deal with here in vancouver, then your princess-ass won't survive in any other country in the world. if you think traffic or rain is bad here, try dealing with it elsewhere. as for housing costs, you get what you pay for -- the #3 best city to live in.. IN THE WORLD

/argument. thread closed & locked. all posts deleted. some users warned. most users banned. site shut down temporarily. site shut down indefinitely. internet shut down.

[!SG]

just saw it on the news

we actually rate 4th in the world amongst something like 260 cities surveyed.

1) australia sunshine coast
2) hawaii somewhere
3) some other place in australia
4) vancouver

[maxxxboost]

That's the sad fact.
I guess we got to work harder or move. But who wants to move? I love it here overall.

[Vansterdam]

tell me something i don't already know

[2damaxmr2]

winnipeg ftw. if it wasnt for my job i would move back to winnipeg.