Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[xpl0sive]

Originally Posted by m3thods

It's just about to get worse. It looks like there's going to be a new traffic light at Alpha St and Lougheed (just east of Willingdon). Couldn't planners just think to use the lower Skytrain station as a pedestrian overpass over Lougheed?

I live in the area and the increase in traffic lights in the area is a headache. The "old new" one just west of Willingdon (east of Rosser) to me seems so unnecessary. You're telling me that people living in Vantage or the West side of SOLO can't walk half a block to Willingdon/Rosser to cross the street? Driving Lougheed between Delta and Boundary is a nightmare nowadays. I'm all for creating a pedestrian-friendly area, but the new lights seems like overkill.

that new light is absolutely retarded. it's got a 25+ second duration and by the time it goes green again, the light on Willingdon goes red. They could have at least synchronised the two lights together so traffic could actually get past Willingdon in a continuous wave.

[GLOW]

east and north bound at that intersection is a nightmare. east during rush hour is a parking lot

[melloman]

Boundary/Gilmore --> Henning/Dawson --> Beta --> Lougheed

It used to be my route home for the longest time. I'd travel East along Broadway (Lougheed) and always turn right at either Boundary or Gilmore because the traffic was/is horrendous. And it will only get worse. You just have to learn to change your route and bypass it.

[GLOW]

quick giving away the alternate routes i don't need them clogged up too!

jk

[miss_crayon]

Originally Posted by m3thods

It's just about to get worse. It looks like there's going to be a new traffic light at Alpha St and Lougheed (just east of Willingdon). Couldn't planners just think to use the lower Skytrain station as a pedestrian overpass over Lougheed?

I live in the area and the increase in traffic lights in the area is a headache. The "old new" one just west of Willingdon (east of Rosser) to me seems so unnecessary. You're telling me that people living in Vantage or the West side of SOLO can't walk half a block to Willingdon/Rosser to cross the street? Driving Lougheed between Delta and Boundary is a nightmare nowadays. I'm all for creating a pedestrian-friendly area, but the new lights seems like overkill.

2nd tower is located off of lougheed and alpha. I'd assume they'd have to put a new light there for residents and commercial users as the parkade entrance is just infront of the building to get into the complex. If there was only west bound access I'd assume it would cause even more traffic congestion if people weren't able to turn left (as they are travelling eastbound).

I'd love to give you guys more information when we re-open how everything is connected/linked to one another and what this project is all about. Although this is probably not going to help/interest many as it doesn't seem like many are for this master planned community....

[4444]

"Master planned community"

Give me a break. In Vancouver and surrounding areas, it's about putting together some shit as quickly as possible with as most pre sales as possible (so they don't have to build what they promised)

As for the traffic problem, the city planners suck at doing just that, planning the city... Traffic lights aren't a good solution to most intersections, roundabouts can be a much more effective solution

[westopher]

Lol except 90% of the people in this city would just spontaneously combust if they had to figure out what the fuck to do in a roundabout with all of the dipshit drivers on the road.

[sonick]

Speaking of traffic planning, how about that new shit-show of an intersection at Gilbert and River Road

[multicartual]

Driving in this city at night is nice. I love just hopping in my car and cruising around town after 11 PM.

Holy fuck, try to get anywhere at like 6 PM, Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ it is faster to walk.

Every. Single. Light. On. Main. Street. Every. Single. Fucking. One.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by multicartual

Driving in this city at night is nice. I love just hopping in my car and cruising around town after 11 PM.

Holy fuck, try to get anywhere at like 6 PM, Jesus H. tap-dancing Christ it is faster to walk.

Every. Single. Light. On. Main. Street. Every. Single. Fucking. One.

main street bro - i need to talk/text/selfie on my phone while holding my latte. i don't have time to bother with obeying crosswalks or look for cars or the colour of traffic lights, that's your problem


actually that's more like commercial drive

[alphaspec1mens]

Originally Posted by GLOW

you didn't just put a dog in a washing machine did you?

I think your girl or women will leave you if you lose your job.

she's only with you because you show up to work 9-5 and really steady

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by alphaspec1mens

I think your girl or women will leave you if you lose your job.

she's only with you because you show up to work 9-5 and really steady

you think i have a harem of women? thanks for the compliment!

if women leave me, that just means i get to find new women to procreate with without having to break up/dump them.

you have to learn to turn lemon in to lemonade. all about experiences!

[m3thods]

Originally Posted by miss_crayon

2nd tower is located off of lougheed and alpha. I'd assume they'd have to put a new light there for residents and commercial users as the parkade entrance is just infront of the building to get into the complex. If there was only west bound access I'd assume it would cause even more traffic congestion if people weren't able to turn left (as they are travelling eastbound).

I'd love to give you guys more information when we re-open how everything is connected/linked to one another and what this project is all about. Although this is probably not going to help/interest many as it doesn't seem like many are for this master planned community....

I hear you.

But can't people walk half a block to Beta? Or a quarter of a block west to use the Skytrain station as an overpass?

For drivers- why didn't they think to put the parkade off of Beta? That way, this new light is useless as drivers can take the extra 2 seconds to drive east to Beta, turn left, and voila you're at the new tower and its retail contents. Heading west? Why would you need to turn left onto Alpha anyways with Beta a more than suitable solution for the traffic that Alpha St. gets. If they needed to get to the tower westbound, Beta would've worked just fine.

I still don't see how the light helps anyone but the residents of that tower, which to me (much like the situation near Vantage/Solo) is very short-sighted for pretty much everyone.

This all just reeks of poor urban planning by the city of Burnaby. Like 4444 said, it just seems like they're adding density without thinking of the surrounding infrastructure. Hell, the Skytrain can barely move enough people during rush hour at Brentwood, yet they add 4+ towers of 40+ stories at just the current Brentwood site alone. I can't imagine what that Skytrain station is going to look like after even the first phase.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if you posted how the community is being planned. I don't see the site as anything but a mess (and it'll get worse), but I'm all for more info.

[alphaspec1mens]

l

Originally Posted by m3thods

I hear you.

But can't people walk half a block to Beta?

that's where beta males live and pay mortgages for their women

[multicartual]

So alpha I could only drive down Beta road doing a burnout the whole way

[alphaspec1mens]

Originally Posted by GLOW

you think i have a harem of women? thanks for the compliment!

I have never found money to be that useful in meeting tons of women/getting laid.

Yeah, if you show your money whores and gold-diggers would come your way but once they suck you up dry, they leave you broke ass. It's not the women you want anyway for long-term dating

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by alphaspec1mens

Yeah, if you show your money whores and gold-diggers would come your way but once they suck you up dry, they leave you broke ass.

the sound of hot women sucking me dry sounds like a pretty damn good experience to me! wait what are we talking about here?

[alphaspec1mens]

Originally Posted by GLOW

the sound of hot women sucking me dry sounds like a pretty damn good experience to me! wait what are we talking about here?

you should learn to master your social circles, status, and social proof!

Even if you have 1 million dollars, how are you gonna meet tons of women without a large social circle?

You master your social circle techniques and it get you laid without blowing lots of your money and its free

its really why you see some guys out there who don't have money average guy in all can pull hot chicks, its because they created a large social circle and create social proof to get women attracted to them

[Y2K_o__o]

Sorry to hi-jack the thread
was going to register an account on Real Estate Talks forum

Does anyone have a freaking clue at the confirmation of registration
"loan is to money as ____________ is to real estate."

[CRS]

Originally Posted by Y2K_o__o

Sorry to hi-jack the thread
was going to register an account on Real Estate Talks forum

Does anyone have a freaking clue at the confirmation of registration
"loan is to money as ____________ is to real estate."

Mortgage?

[4444]

Originally Posted by westopher

Lol except 90% of the people in this city would just spontaneously combust if they had to figure out what the fuck to do in a roundabout with all of the dipshit drivers on the road.

exactly the problem with society today. people in north america, generally, are distracted drivers, so we pander to their weaknesses.

roundabouts are so fucking efficient, traffic lights/intersections are rarely.

[GLOW]

not sure if it's distractions that's the issue with drivers in vancouver, but a matter of drivers going full retard...

the intersection of 38th and earls in vancouver is a good example of that.

[Carl Johnson]

RPT-Vancouver prime property market sizzles, fueled by China cash
Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:00am EDT

(Repeats with no changes to headline or text)
By Julie Gordon

(Reuters) - Chinese investors' global hunt for prime real estate is helping drive Vancouver home prices to record highs and the city, long among top destinations for wealthy mainland buyers, is feeling the bonanza's unwelcome side-effects.

The latest wave of Chinese money, linked in part to Beijing's anti-graft crackdown, is flowing into luxury hot spots. But it has also started driving up housing costs elsewhere in a city which already ranks as North America's least affordable urban market.

For decades Vancouver, along with Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore and more recently New York and London has been attracting Chinese and other Asian buyers.

And just like those other cities, Vancouver got caught in the most recent buying frenzy, which realtors say has intensified after President Xi Jinping announced his anti-corruption crusade in late 2012.

"In the last year there's been the corruption crackdown in China and a lot of people have seen their wealth evaporate over there because of that," said Dan Scarrow, a vice president at MacDonald Realty.

"So they want to put it somewhere they perceive as safe and there's nowhere safer than the west."

Canada does not track foreign property buyers, but analysis of city assessment data carried out by a leading urban planner and made available to Reuters helped identify Vancouver's hottest neighborhoods. Interviews with realtors active in those areas confirmed the perception that Chinese buyers were largely behind the latest rally.

Andy Yan of Bing Thom Architects found that values for detached homes in the C$2-5 million range have risen by 49 percent since 2009, making it the fastest growing segment in Vancouver's housing market. Home values in a handful of luxury enclaves in Vancouver's west climbed more than 50 percent over that period, driving city-wide values up more than 35 percent.
Realtors are saying that more than half of buyers in prime markets are mainland Chinese.

"My market, the luxury real estate market, is primarily Asian buyers - mostly from mainland China," said realtor Malcolm Hasman, a partner at Angell Hasman and Associates. Hasman said Asian buyers accounted for roughly 90 percent of sales of properties costing C$5 million(4.57 million US dollar) and more.

The impact of the latest inflow of foreign cash is particularly acute for Vancouver, its market already tight because of limited building space and a decade-long nationwide property bull run fueled by low borrowing costs.
However, its headaches might offer a glimpse of things to come for other world cities that attract global capital.

Sales volumes for detached luxury homes soared in Vancouver by 38 percent in the first half of 2014 compared with the year earlier period, led by properties valued at or above C$2 million, according to a report by Sotheby's International Realty Canada.

"Foreign investors are competing with other wealthy Canadians and there's a lot of demand," said Ross McCredie, chief executive of the luxury-focused realty firm.

Over the past 12 months, the benchmark price for a detached home in western Vancouver rose 10 percent to a record C$2.28 million, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

STATUS SYMBOLS

Nowhere is the China effect more apparent than at the top end of the market.

An English-style estate on a one-acre lot in Vancouver's exclusive First Shaughnessy neighborhood is on sale for C$17.9 million and all 10 offers it has attracted so far are from ethnic Chinese buyers. All are either newcomers or those who have arrived in the past decade, according to the listing agent.

"It's all about status," said Sherry Chen, a realtor with Rampf-Anderson Real Estate Group, who deals mainly with wealthy clients from mainland China.
In most cases, these are "astronaut families" where the husband keeps working in Asia flying back and forth, while the wife establishes an education base for the children in Canada.

Close correlation between high-end property prices and the discontinued "millionaire visa" program for wealthy individuals has raised concerns that its termination this year could hurt the market. But prices seem to have recovered after a temporary dip, McDonald Realty's Scarrow said, adding that property investors had several other ways of accessing the market.
The money flow has transformed the DNA of the city. Condo towers are now built without a fourth floor, as that number is unlucky in Asian cultures, and wok kitchens - a second kitchen for cooking with a smoky wok - are standard in most new homes.

The influx is also having a trickledown effect as people sell out in prime locations and move to other neighborhoods driving up prices and widening the gap between housing costs and the condition of the local economy.
"We are in this unprecedented situation right now in terms of housing prices and how quickly they've escalated. They've become completely disconnected from local incomes," said Geoff Meggs, a Vancouver city councillor.

Vancouver has ranked the second least affordable major city after Hong Kong for the past three years in an annual survey by think-tank Demographia which tracks housing costs and incomes in top markets such as New York, Sydney, Singapore and London.

That raises fears of brain drain and concerns about the markets excessive reliance on foreign money.

"I think Vancouver faces challenges a number of cities are facing in the world," said Yan. "And that is what does one do in this new environment of global capital and money flows." (1 US dollar = 1.0952 Canadian dollar) (Additional reporting by Clare Jim and Jonathan Gordon in Hong Kong and Anita Li in Shanghai; Editing by Amran Abocar and Tomasz Janowski)

What does the massive amount of capital leaving China reflect on the status of China? If the most successful Chinese whom have benefited the greatest from the past 30 years of economic development are leaving the country, doesn't it really cast a huge doubt on the future prospect of China?

The Vancouver real estate market and a big part of our economy in construction, building materials, furniture, home renovations are strongly tied to what is happening and will happen in China. Whether or not you care about what is going in China doesn't really matter because either way the city is going to be effected.

[Gululu]

Originally Posted by Carl Johnson

What does the massive amount of capital leaving China reflect on the status of China? If the most successful Chinese whom have benefited the greatest from the past 30 years of economic development are leaving the country, doesn't it really cast a huge doubt on the future prospect of China?

no, i wouldn't cast a doubt based on this. massive cash flow has always been flowing out of china since the 80's. define massive. what % in terms of GDP. also the people are really aware (not like they don't know its happening) and the government is cracking down ferociously. and really its not all that bad that these wealthiers are leaving, even if they had parked the money inside china, the people wouldn't benefit a penny from them.

[Y2K_o__o]

Originally Posted by xpl0sive

that new light is absolutely retarded. it's got a 25+ second duration and by the time it goes green again, the light on Willingdon goes red. They could have at least synchronised the two lights together so traffic could actually get past Willingdon in a continuous wave.

I know that feel bro.

I don't take Willington anymore now. The increasing traffic light is totally retarded. Even the light is green, the traffic won't be able to move until the next light is clear. This will cascade further down the road and it gets worse and worse......

That happens to
1) Willington / Brentwood Mall exit
2) Willington / Hwy 1 Exit ( Canada Way)

What's going on with the planning at Willington..........