Source: B.C. home seller offering discount to foreigners to blunt new tax - The Globe and Mail

I wonder why these people lost the privilege to self-regulate.

There's good places in BC...but other than that? :badpokerface:

I have relatives that live in nice resort towns like Invermere and they are beautiful little towns, relatively well off people because lots either work out of town or manage businesses within the town. However, there are all the problems small towns have. Drugs/booze, unemployment, nothing to do other than ski and power sports in the winter, etc. Also "dining" is pretty much non existent in places like these.

Kelowna is full of Brochacho's. The surrounding areas like Vernon etc seem nice but again, for myself it lacks big city amenities. Things like going to a Best Buy, Home Depot, Costco etc you take for granted when you live close to them all. It comes down to online ordering or a decent drive to get to these places.

Toronto is a completely different lifestyle than Vancouver and to me, people born and bred in TO and the surrounding suburbs are -completely- different than people from BC, different mentalities, different lifestyles, etc. good friends I grew up with who now live and work in TO are all hugely outgoing extroverts. And they have these massive circles of friends who are almost all the same A type personalities. I'd say for the most part I personally lean more toward the introverted side, and just don't really care for what goes along with the type of relationships seemingly everyone I know who moved to TO has.

So then you get to Quebec, maritimes, etc. I'm sure there's some good in those spots, but outside of Montreal I don't see much as a long term solution. Quebec City is nice but it's a tourist depot. The east coast seems nice and seemingly has great people but no work, for anyone really.

For me, it would probably come down to the island, Squamish, whistler, somthing like that

Lol what does that even accomplish? If they wouldn't buy it for 1.98 then why would they at 2.35 with a 15% discount. He just sounds butthurt and wanted to make a crybaby news story.

Just remember B.C. is more than just Vancouver.

because in the foreign buyers eyes he's not paying 1.98M anymore, he's paying 2.3M (after foreign buyer tax)

If they had an accepted offer earlier this year or anytime last year...it may be worth 2.3M+ right now

He knows Asians can't resist a sale. :troll:

Anyone who says the city they lived in most of their lives is 'the greatest place on Earth' is deluded and biased.

Because there's no such thing as the objectively identifying the greatest place. It's an emotional response based on environmental stimuli.

I grew up in Vancouver but times and people change. I think career building in this city sucks. Obviously there's some exceptions but not everyone wants to build a glass condo they can't afford or run a coffee shop they can't afford the lease on. But Vancouver is a nice trap city. You don't want to leave because it's soo beautiful so you make the sacrifices and stick around, ignoring that you could make $20k more a year doing the same job in another city. Nevermind the fact you could always move back to Vancouver with your extra monies.

But hey, whatever works right? As long as you're not house poor and enjoy the place you live in and enjoy the other 90% of your life, then keep going.

But if the only thing holding you back from leaving here is 'love', then I suggest screwing your head on tighter and ask yourself what will happen in 10 years with your job? Spouse's job? The economy? The interest rates? The market?

they're a funny bunch. my old supervisor was from china, he told me a story of a friend that had a retail clothing business...good quality clothes and he tried to sell it as cheap as possible so it was a great deal for people...he struggled for a while and couldn't get sales... i forget, lets say a year. he was confused and didn't understand...good quality and good price...so what he ended up doing was going fuck it, i'm gonna increase the price by like 10 times and see what happens....his shit started flying off the shelves :lawl:

more you jack the price the more you sell :lol

To GS8
It depends on what industry you are in. For me, unless I want to open my own place and try and push a food culture on a city full of people that won't care about it, this is absolutely the best place for my career advancement. My wife is a nurse and pay is standardized across the province. It took a few months longer for her to find a job, but once she was in, she's golden. It's about finding a balance. Ours includes sacrificing a few square feet so we can afford whistler passes and old BMW Motorsport parts. We will never get rich here, but that theoretical 20k extra and 700 more square feet of floor space won't get me what I'm looking for. I totally get your perspective, but it's a pretty easy sell for the other side of the coin as well.
But just because it's working for me doesn't mean I don't want a change so it can work for others that want to be a contributing part of the community.
I couldn't give a shit if I lost the equity I "earned" over the past year because my life is affected far more negatively that I cant find enough staff because no one can afford to live here more than the theoretical number on the "find your home value" calculator dropping would.

So the 15% tax for Chinese buyers officially kicked in.

However I'm very skeptical that this will actually bring housing prices down to the point it's affordable for Canadians.

I think this is nothing but the government trying to make extra cash.

Even if that is the case, it's still good for Canadians. Provided it's spent properly.

properly distributed among the politicians as bonuses for doing their part to help the voters and making vancouver great again Kappa

Although I do wish a helicopter would land on krusty, I don't think they can quite get away with that here. After all, we don't see corrupt Canadian politicians parking stolen money in Chinese real estate yet.WutFace

to 4444, you are like the old gf that will not go away. If you weren't such a dipshit, people would actually want to listen to you. I don't understand how you can bash Vancouver all the time for everything, but still spend so much time on a Vancouver based forum telling everyone Vancouver is shit. I know when I don't care about something, I just tune it out. Sounds like you are over compensating or trying to justify your own decisions by bashing Vancouver.

There are many great cities in the world and Vancouver happens to be one of them.

I love reading this thread.

Is gululu actually banned from posting in here?

If you're gonna look at homicide rates, yes ok. Canada is probably safer than Chicago. But does it really matter that much?

The homicide rates per 100000 residents in canada is approximately 1.56 vs 3.9 in the united states.

But in real terms we're talking about 2.5 people out of 100000 will be murdered in the US compared to Canada. So you have a 1 in 40000 (0.0025%) chance that you will be murdered if you lived in the US compared to Canada. That is nothing. It also does not adjust for differences in lifestyles. There are probably more people involved in organized crime and drugs in the US than in Canada. If you stay away from that stuff, your chances of being murdered also decreases.

You also need people to be around to go on a killing spree. A psychopath would probably have to run 100 times further to find another person in Canada compared to France. Hell if I went on a rampage in Hong Kong, I could probably mow down 1000 people within a minute. I don't think I could find a thousand people in 2 hours in Vancouver.

Yes, all smoke and mirrors because that's what I said, you're not taking anything I said out of context at all. I'm not saying there is no foreign money influence, there clearly is, but its not the overriding issue with our housing prices. Having said that foreign money and it's reach to every other part of our 'economy' in consumption spending cannot be ignored.

Though this is an opinion piece, its has been well thought out about what is and has actually been happening. And also about how the masses have generally responded to the largely media driven (IMO) hysteria over the past several years. But it won't draw much publicity because it doesn't get locals all riled up, and overall not very sexy.
Explaining Vancouver real estate: a 10-step alternative to the foreign-buyers narrative | Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly

I posted this question before but didn't get any replies.

Has anyone ever gone through with a Private Sale (i.e. no realtors)? If so what was involved, and pitfalls? I'm assuming lawyers and/or notaries need to be involved.

I think he is only allowed to post in Fight Club now?

Having sold privately myself, there's not much to it.

- Come to an agreement on price
- Download a template purchase and sal agreement, or have a notary draft one for you
- Decide what subjects you want to include and a date when the subjects will be waived and offer will be made firm
- Have the seller confirm the title on the property
- Have separate representation from each party, whether a notary or lawyer

If you're considering a strata property, you should probably get the seller to supply you with a copy of the Form B so you know the bylaws, the rules, and what else is included with the strata lot, such as parking spaces and storage lockers.

With that said, you can literally write the contract on a napkin, but if you need financing to purchase a property, you should probably come to an agreement with the seller about how you're going to pay for the services of a notary or lawyer to draft a purchase and sale agreement. Your lender will probably want something that is somewhat official when they are doing risk assessment. If you are comfortable reading legal documents, then download a template and modify it as you see fit.

The narrative often repeated here and on other forums is that if it weren't for foreign money, Vancouver would have remained the backwater it was in the 1970s and 1980s. The children of blue-collar parents would be able to buy a detached home in their neighbourhood of choice for 2-3 times the average family household income.

Metro Vancouver home sales dropped 75% after foreign buyer tax announced: realtor | Globalnews.ca

still early though

The only locals who are upset about this are realtors, and the fools they talked into buying during the major feeding frenzy in the last 14 months. The rest of us are completely fine with a foreigners tax.

For the record, I own property. I enjoy it as a home, and I enjoy my condo in Whistler. Do I view them as investments? Sure I do. But we're talking long term investments. There is no reason that a house should go up 30% in value in the span of a few years. That goes against the fundamentals that we built our financial system upon.


Correct Traum, that's what skinnypupp said a few days ago.
gulululemon jumped the shark and went full retard. At the same time.
WutFace