a pedestal or even spiked feet helps, but your best bet is to probably lay a layer of sound deadening material underneath your flooring... you would think downtown condos would come equipped with that in the first place

I bought at The Shore in North Van.

Looks like good value for your dollar... But that damn bridge! I don't think my GF would go for it. :lock

FFS, every bi-month we learn just how dark and disturbing the real estate industry is. Not sure what's worse, these horrible excuses for salespeople or dumb fucks who ignore it all and equate high RE prices simply to Vancouver being 't3h aw350m3'.

and I thought we jacked up the price 2 hrs before the cheque was cheap lol

protest this afternoon for this places demo

Anti-demolition rally set for Shaughnessy this afternoon - NEWS 1130

:rolleyes:

get a life. It's not even a house to condo situation nor heritage house, someone just want a newer house and maybe they didn't want to do anymore reno, or maybe they need to build a more disability friendlier house. Wtf who are these ppl to say they can't do what they want. Fucking hypocrites. Who are these retards.

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/S...olumbia-V5J2P4

This property was last sold in the summer of 2011 for about 930k. The builder himself tore it down and lived there since and is now selling the house for an astonishing 3.1m in Burnaby South Slope. If you take the floor space of 4736 sqft and times it by $150 per sqft, it roughly costed him 700k to build it, so if he sells it at the asking price the builder is pocketing a handsome tax-free profits of 1.5m in less than 5 years.

But of course the politicians and rest of establishments will just tell all of us to study and work harder in our 9-5, because obviosuly the system is fair and some day you will make it.

That is a pretty house! We all need to win the lottery to live in a house like that within our own city :(

that builder has about 4-6 properties that they are currently building and he lives in them all. If the trend continues and he gets the houses built while the market is still hot he will pocket over 7-8 million in 5 years :drunk:

even as the builder/owner, you're nuts if you think he built that place for $150/sq foot.

How exactly is this "unfair" the guy has the know-how and ability to do it, and there's somthing wrong with it?

What's a better estimate?

I'd think his cost would be around $220+ minimum. The finishing aren't anything super crazy, but it looks nicely done and a fair bit of mill work etc

For an average person to get that type of build using a contractor, you'd be approaching $300 if not more imo

As well, in the last few years construction costs have risen fairly substantially, albeit not enough to severely effect profits on this scale too bad, it still cuts into it

I agree, just look at MacBooks over 1000$ r u kidding me, the first computer Steve job made was 100$ how dare him sell shit for a profit. Government should step in, not just Apple, Ibm, asus and other company, they should sell it at cost. Not fair

Petition to restrict foreign ownership in Vancouver
BY
JILL SLATTERY
4:25 PM PST, THU MAY 07, 2015
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/05/p...hip-vancouver/


http://www.vancitybuzz.com/wp-conten..._b-984x500.jpg

29.9kSHARES Share on Facebook (29.9k) Share on Twitter (21) +
Image: Craig Paterson / FlickrImage: Craig Paterson via Flickr
Vancouver housing prices have been growing at an alarming rate for the past few years, and now finally, residents are getting fed up with the lack of action from political leaders to dissuade foreign ownership.

A new Change.org petition calls for action from Premier Christy Clark, Mayor Gregor Robertson and mayors and city councillors of Metro Vancouver to restrict foreign investment in Vancouver’s residential real estate market.

“It’s time to stand up and protect our community—Vancouver is not for sale,” the petition reads. “The housing needs of Greater Vancouver residents are more important than the profit margins of foreign speculators.”

The brief petition by a resident by the name of JW Gamal does not offer any suggestions on how to curb the influx of foreign ownership. It currently has 218 supporters out of a necessary 500.

One Vancouver resident and supporter of the petition, Sylvia H., feels very strongly about the issue pushing born-and-bred Vancouverites out of their home.

“We can’t just sit back and complain about it and do nothing. As the electorate, we should be demanding that the government do something about this to preserve our communities for future generations. If nothing is done about this now, it is entirely possible that the Lower Mainland may be substantially foreign-owned in the next 10 – 20 years,” she says.

“No one born and raised here will be able to buy anything – the next generation will all be renting from foreign landlords who will charge exorbitant rates of rent – because they will be able to – and because we allowed them to come and buy the entire Lower Mainland.”

Sylvia also makes a timely observation on how overseas buyers are ballooning wider problems in the city, including congestion.

“Foreign ownership is driving up house prices, which forces local families to look further and further away to find affordable housing. That means they will probably be reliant on a vehicle to get anywhere, which contributes to road congestion, and which is why we are now at the place we are at with a transit plebiscite. In my mind it is all connected.”

Even more than the cause-and-effect scenario Sylvia plays out, is the moral issue at hand. In 2014, a leaked report from China’s central bank reported that 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned enterprises illicitly acquired over $123 billion US and fled to countries such as Canada, the U.S., Australia and the Netherlands.

In a Huffington Post blog, National Post editor-at-large, Diane Francis aptly summarized how so many wealthy Chinese are getting into the Canadian housing market.

“The goal is to buy a condo or luxury goods with funds from a trust managed by a shell company in Grand Cayman, owned by another trust in Guernsey with an account in Luxembourg managed by a Swiss banker who doesn’t know who the owner is.”

Though Canada does not keep public data on foreign ownership, making it one of the few in the world not to do so, numerous studies on Vancouver’s housing prices have pointed to overseas money as a large reason why housing prices have increased by up to 50 per cent in some neighbourhoods.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced that over 35 per cent of units in the Vancouver House condominium development have been sold to foreigners. Developers are even going as far to advertise Vancouver real estate developments overseas, such as the Vancouver House ad spotted last fall in Taipei. And on Tuesday, Vancity Buzz reported a Shaughnessy mansion just sold for $2 million over its $5.99 million asking price.

The Vancouverites for Affordable Housing organization is now planning an Affordable Housing Rally to take place on Sunday, May 24 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

May 07, 2015

If I buy a stock and make a profit I have to pay tax on 50% of my gain (excluding RRSP TFSA here). If I work a regular job I have to pay taxes according to my marginal tax rate not to mention all other other deductions like CPP and EI government takes. So why is it this guy who have lived at this residence for less than 5 years can potentially net over $1,000,000+ not have pay a dime on this profit? The current system of principal residence exemption needs to be abolished once for all. This should guy be paying taxes on at least half of his capital gain just like if I a buy a stock since he never had the intention of living their permanently.

And to the guy that mentioned Apple computer. Your average citizen don't need a Mac to survive (although some apple addicts might) but most don't. A house is one of most basic need to set up a family and enjoy life. It is the cornerstone of a stable society and when you got guys flipping trying to make a quick buck, this builder making home less affordable to everyone else.

This does ultimately comes down the question of fairness. And do you answer your question Hondacracer? I do believe there is something fundamentally wrong with it when people are exploiting the system and not paying their fair share.

although I agree with you regarding the tax issue, he took and good gamble and won. you and I both could of did the same thing and would be laughing about it now, but we didn't. that's why people don't like the "system".

in the end, if you were in his shoes, you'd be a happy man not having to pay the tax

exactly. so many hypocrites hating on others' success.

This is basically my opinion on the matter. In this current environment with so few restrictions on all sorts of investment id rather see local business doing well than foreign investors building equity over buying vacant properties.

It takes a hell of a lot of work to tear down and build a new home, and the work involved far surpasses the efforts most put in to build wealth. Regardless of your cash flow and net worth, it's a true investment to buy into million dollar + homes and risk a huge chunk of liquidity in order to turn a profit.

lol 3 million. 600k down and then it becomes a 12k/month mortgage for 25 years?

Waiting for someone who's going to tell me how its an excellent investment vs renting.

Problem is, the Chinese are coming in and buying with cash. Only poor people like us would need a mortgage.

It could possibly be an excellent investment. "What if" next year it can sell for $4 million? That's a million in one year, way more than what that guy is pocketing.

It sure beats buying that 100 year old shack in Vancouver a few pages back for like 2.5 million.

better question is how the hell can they bring that much cash in such short amount of time when there's these "supposed" limits on how much they could bring out of china or in to Canada

this link shows one: Follow the money: Evidence submitted at fraud probe points to concerns about Vancouver real estate market


but it can't be the only way... other than having 10,000 friends and family to transfer the money to them...

An article in the globe and mail about how property transfers are avoiding taxation by assigning properties before the sale closes, and a few other things.

It's a bit long

The real estate technique fuelling Vancouver's housing market - The Globe and Mail

Giant ass scheme that only pushes the prices of Vancouver real estate higher

Many people raise a family in a condo and enjoy life. I didn't know one must have a house before family. Unless you mean it's one of YOUR basic need to set up a family then that's different. I agree houses are getting expensive, but you can't blame it on people flipping houses, many people do it, and in other places too, there are shows on tv that's pretty much about flipping house. He's a builder doing what builders do, that's his job, you can't fault him for doing his job.

Flipping houses is much different than what the agents are doing with assignment sales. That you can blame along with foreign buyers.