except your piece of land would be worth around $1.3M+ alone even if it had no house...

you cant use the sq/ft calculation in valuing your home as most of the value is on the land whereas in an apartment you get very very little land..

If your lot is a standard 33x120, your house would easily sell for 1.5 million today. The value is in the land - you can build 3 legal suites on 1 lot.

yea actually pretty dumb of me based on SQ foot when in reality detached is rarely referred to in sq/$ only multi family etc.

we have a smaller than average lot but bigger than average house

curious as to what the effect of TO implementing their foreign buyers tax will have on Vancouver.

Since both Vancouver and Toronto will have this tax do foreigner start investing in other markets in Canada?

I honestly can't see the Winnipeg or Saskatoon markets increasing like TO or the 604 did. Part of the allure of Vancouver and Toronto is that they're proper globally recognized cities. The Quebecois protect their society vehemently, so Montreal won't be an option. Victoria is looking at a foreign buyers tax too.

I honestly feel for the foreign money launderers. Without Australia, Canada or the US accepting their investments, where will they go?

WutFace

j/k.
No fucks given for foreign investors.

when i was in Montreal just last fall, I saw a sh!tload of asians in the area where i stayed for airbnb. Most of them were students but i saw a decent amount of adults in the supermarkets as well. Also a lot of the restaurants in that area were of Asian/fusion descent. Yes it's anecdotal, but when I saw a mandarin>english cheat sheet for employees at the back of a changeroom at Sports Experts (or some other sports clothing store), then I would say that Montreal is probably the next foreign investor "hot spot" in Canada if there were to be another one.

Buy now or risk saying bye-bye to affordable Montreal home ownership | Montreal Gazette

mon dieu, tabarnac!!

I know Victoria is now lobbying for a foreign buyer tax on RE properties as well, but quite frankly, I'm a little surprised to see that the Island -- esp around the Greater Victoria area -- hasn't been taken over like Vancouver or Toronto yet.

That's insanity. When I ran a factory in Anjou (suburb of Montreal) I had to take a provincially mandated french test to ensure that I was able to speak to my employees in their native tongue. All provincial and municipal business is conducted in french. They don't need to provide neither english or chinese language, it's in their charters.

If the orientals were offended by the 15% tax, just wait until they get a load of the french.....

They mention my old neighborhood.
" Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve’s another. Both Cardinal and Fontaine mentioned this part of town as one they thought still had good values, but where prices would rise quickly."

Crazy thing is, when we lived there it was almost a truly francophone area. We're talking half the population who don't speak english. Part of the reason why I had to become fluent in French was that I just couldn't communicate with the locals when I lived there, and they basically rubbed it in my face.

Adding to the language issues, one must take into account the frigidly cold winters, and stifling hot summers. Montreal is a nice place to visit. But I wouldn't want to live their again.

Just wait, even fungus needs time to grow.
If it's not the foreign buyers eating up the island, they're still buying in the lower mainland pushing folks out. The Okanagon is growing and still has the harsh climate. Honestly, after living in a few places in this great nation, I could handle Victoria. It's far enough south to take advantage of the climate, plus it has all the amenities that one needs to survive. I could live there. Me and about five hundred thousand other people.....

Yes Victoria has officially asked the province to implement a 15% tax on foreign buyers.
They have been monitoring for months and put it on hold 3 months ago.

Foreign buyers currently account for 5.2% of purchases.

I think it is a pre-emptive strike to keep homes affordable in Victoria. It may help but the the majority of buyers driving prices up here are coming from Vancouver or elsewhere. I personally know two houses one neighbour and a co-worker listed about 600k that recently sold for 100k over ask. Both Vancouver buyers who felt they were getting bargains. One was Langford and one was Saanich a few doors down from our home.

Compared to Vancouver, Victoria is a great deal.

“Vancouver between Squamish and Hope had a 30 to 50% increase in property values this year. In our area, the Juan de Fuca had 7%. Langford had 8.5, Sooke, 8.75, Metchosin 10% — all really nice annual increases,” Hicks said, adding the increase was 20% in Saanich, 24% in Victoria and 31% in Oak Bay."

Victoria council gives tentative approval to 15 per cent foreign buyers tax - British Columbia - CBC News

https://www.biv.com/article/2017/4/p...ets-mixed-rev/

2835 Rockwell Ave, Victoria, BC - house for sale | Royal LePage
A house near us is currently for sale for $600k, 7850sq ft lot. 3 bed 2 bath 1940 and in need of a lot of work. Backyard full of sheds and junk. I figure someone will buy it for the land and level it. Cars all weekend long on the street during the open houses Sat/Sun and the realtor mentioned around 100 floor plans were handed out. Who knows how many went through. I noticed majority caucasian buyers with maybe 25% asian.

If (when?) there comes a day when I really cannot afford to live in Vancouver, Victoria or other places on the Island would certainly be an excellent alternative. Go anywhere east (from Vancouver) and you don't even have to go that far, and it gets progressively harsher summers/winters.

The only "problem" is employment. If I can find work on the Island, it really wouldn't be a bad idea to consider moving there.

Does anyone have a mortgage broker that they recommend? As well as a realtor that works that Langley area

^^ Lol that's why is a good idea to research the developers first. He does sound a bit picky to be honest. As long as the issue is fix the developers/insurance don't give a shit. If he wants stuff to be pretty and nice he can pay out of his own pocket.

Have a few friends who still have issue with their units after they move in. Is nothing big like small things. Is bound to happen.

Victoria is a great deal. Not many people know about what the island has to offer, mainly because of the ferry system. The ferry has kept the island a secret, but folks options are running thin now. You can't touch a house in Vancouver or Burnaby, Langley and Coquitlam real estate has gone nuts. The nice parts of Surrey are unaffordable, and the further east you go, the less infrastructure there is.

Victoria or Squamish isn't everyone's first choice. But people are being pushed out, and I'd take Victoria over Chilliwack any day of the week.


Many of our friends plan to leave the lower mainland when our kids grow up. I was thinking Kamloops, but even they are starting to see huge increases in property values. I wouldn't touch Kelowna with it's cocaine nights, and steroid days. Our options are limited.

I'll be the first to say that the rest of Canada sucks. Outside of Toronto and Montreal, you have no culture, terrible winters, bug filled summers, angry natives, crime, high murder rates, the Oilers.......

Canada is nice to look at in pictures, but outside of the 604, the 514, and the 416 area codes, it's not that nice a place.

Pretty much all of the newer developments have shit quality, my friends apartment which isnt a year old already has issues.

I don't mind the foreign investing. But, our government should be capitalizing on the $$ even further to the point of greed. Be business-like for once. The tax rates for foreigner-owned residential properties should be increased exponentially. We never had this tax revenue stream before, so there is nothing to lose.

In addition to the ferry, I think a major concern for people about the Island is job opportunities. Not everyone aspires to be a senior care worker in Nanaimo / Duncan or wherever the current senior home care shortage is.

How would you say the job market / employment opportunities are like on the Island?

Someone more knowledgeable than me please explain this to me like I'm an idiot:

With the run-up of property prices in BC the past decade, you would think the resulting effect would be a huge windfall in tax revenue for the provincial and municipal governments. If this is the case, why do we still have shit infrastructure and still have to fight tooth and nail for every incremental improvement in transit, roads, health care, schools, trash collection, etc. It just doesn't make any common sense to me unless everyone in gov't is making out like robber barons.

My wife and I stayed at an AirBnB outside of Sechelt last summer. Owners weren't retired people - they were a young family who bought a lot with a house, garage, and a workshop with a suite above it they used to run the BnB. They had a printing business they ran out of the workshop. The father had a classic car in his garage. Their property was 10 minutes outside of town and just off the highway.

If you have equity here and are entrepreneurial, I would give the Sunshine Coast a hard look. Best of all, the ferry is a return fare so it's cheaper to go back to the mainland to meet with clients or to catch a concert.

Because the BC Libs are:

1) imbeciles
2) lacking a worldly view on the global economy and politics
3) failure to understand the Mainland Chinese mentality

IMO, they are too chicken shxt to think that such policies would scare the Chinese money away. What they do not realize is, Mainlanders have a burning desire to channel their funds outside of the country. And with all the advantages that Vancouver enjoys (proximity to Asia / China, vast Chinese polulation, environment, schooling opportunities, etc.), they could jack up the entry fees and still attract enough foreigners to come.

Essentially, the Libs have Porsches available for sale, but they are afraid that if they sell them at Porsche prices, the foreigners wouldn't buy them in high quantities, so they just sell them at Civic prices. What they don't realize is, the Porsche margin is much, much, much higher than the Civic margin...

I agree that we should be capitalizing on the foreign investment, but also capping it. We have what the world wants, and I'm not against making the outsiders pay for it. Let's face it, we're lucky to have been born here, just like Swiss babies are lucky to be born in Switzerland. But unlike Switzerland, we're giving away citizenship for far less than it is actually worth.

I'm self employed, so it doesn't really matter where my office is based, but I can't imagine the job opportunities are that great for people outside of fishing, film making, lumber, and the hospitality industries. That said, as the population grows, so do those opportunities. It's a good time to get in on the ground floor of the next great homestead. For a doctor, lawyer, mechanic, physiotherapist, book keeper, or construction worker, I guarantee that opportunities are there for them.

Makes me wish I had gone to dental school.
WutFace

Christy Clark boosts maximum salaries for top aides by 18 per cent

"Clark’s deputy chief of staff can now also make up to $230,000, representing a boost of almost 60 per cent from the position’s previous cap of $144,000."

"Clark has now hired her assistant campaign director, Michele Cadario, to be her deputy chief of staff. Under the new rules, Cadario will make an annual salary of $195,148. Clark’s previous deputy chief of staff, Kim Haakstad, who resigned before the election over the ethnic outreach scandal, had been paid $149,027."

This doesn't take into account expenses, or frills. Safe to say that they're doing very well for themselves.

-Education costs the province $320 million per year.
-An additional $13.7 billion will be spent over the next three years on capital investments in schools, roads, hospitals and public safety.
-The Ministry of Children and Family Development will receive an additional $287 million over the next three years to support children and youth, including $120 million to start addressing the recommendations of the Grand Chief Ed John Report on Indigenous Child Welfare.

* There are approx 200,000 native people in BC. If 50% of those are under the age of 18, it works out to about $1200/person.

It's insane what they spend, and impossible to ensure that all of the money is going to the right place. One thing I've learned over the years is that if you want to get wealthy, suck off the gov't teat. Whether it's repairing cars for ICBC, or creating facebook ads for the provincial gov't, the checks are going to be big, and they're going to clear.

Just look at this?!
Province to spend nearly $2-million advertising new MSP cut

There are plenty of good industries and jobs in Victoria but competition is fierce because of the quality of life.

Solid middle class careers here are in government, trades, tourism, health care, IT / advanced technology, colleges and universities etc.

I doubt it. The added tax is barely anything. Plus there are loop holes in it already..

We are taking pennies from foreign investors. Basically giving our land up for cheap. Even with the incoming "foreign tax".. Its charging them a nickel instead. Basically, doing nothing. Imo.

But hey. The uppers don't care. As long as they line their pockets and create large short term cash to look better(gotta get those annual earnings up). Who gives a fck about long term! Let the future people of bc deal with it