Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[MarkyMark]

Originally Posted by westopher

Well that depends...
Do you love your life? Or love your home?
Being house poor and not enjoying yourself seems just as stupid to me as giving up your home, cashing in and yolo'ing the fuck out for a while. Travelling to your dream places, relaxing on a beach and then seeing where you are at when you get back doesn't seem stupid to me. Or maybe you never come back? It just depends where your priorities lie. If you have a kid? Yeah you are a fucking idiot if you give up stability for your selfish reasons, but for others its a brilliant idea.
The economy is cyclical, and believe it or not, things will change, even in vancouver, and maybe just a little bit. Or maybe a lot?
As much as people still treat real estate as the only measurable level of success, that mentality is on its way out with this generation. To me overextending yourself to buy a home and living like a slave with a financial axe swinging over your head is far dumber than giving up the home ownership dream.

Well that depends how you want to look at it. If you're making the conscious decision to cash out and see the world with the profits you made because the market was good to you then that's one thing. If you bought a house and then forfeit it because you don't know how to stop going out for dinner and drinks then I'd wonder why you didn't consider that before you bought.

To me those are the same people who buy a dog on a whim and then when they realize it's a lot work with sacrifices they just get rid of it.

[Tapioca]

Originally Posted by 68style

My family has 20 acres in Aldergrove from a family farm... what's your guys opinipn? Sell now? Both myself and my sister are stuck in condo/townhouse situations ourselves and could potentially give us hope of getting into something else. Especially my sister who has 2 kids.

Tough one.

Considering what's happening to all of the big lots by the highway, I'm sure the Township will probably look at Aldergrove next for multi-family residential. Therefore, the value for such parcels like your family's will only increase. The magic number is for you and your family to decide.

What I would do is hang onto it, lease it to a company or family willing to use it as a farm to generate cash flow, then take a HELOC or the commercial equivalent on the property and use that to fund yours and your sisters home upgrade aspirations.

[minoru_tanaka]

Originally Posted by westopher

If you can manage to get me some eggs for under $50 a case and don't treat your chickens like shit I'll take probably 1000 eggs a week.

You probably need some for your restaurant too

[westopher]

Well yeah the 1000 a week I want aren't for personal use.

[fliptuner]

Westopher bathes in hollandaise, didn't you know?

On the RE front, detached prices in the tri-cities pretty much went up 25% in the last 3 months, averaging about $1M now. Crazy.

[Traum]

I have family living at the Met, and while I agree that the building and the units present well, I can't say I am too happy with the build quality, the quality of the residents, and the polices the conceige has adopted in attempt to mitigate the issues caused by the residents.

On initial build quality, I'd say it's roughly par for course for a typical new building. There is the uneven floor; baseboards that have a huge gap where it meets the floor at certain places; wall paint / touch up issues; baseboard heaters that sit a full 1+cm away from the wall / baseboard; lights that didn't work, etc. Some of these issues were addressed. Others we were told is not fixable (ie. the uneven floor and baseboard gaps). Most annoying are the recurring problems. We have an intermittently leaky ceiling that sees a growing water stain, usually after some sort of sustained heavy rainfall. Developer repair has been slow, and from what I can see, the are only patching up our visual in-suite problem without addressing / looking into the real cause.

The massive windows everywhere make the place quite hot in the summer, and too $$$ to heat up in the winter. We don't want to open the windows too much because there is construction on both sides of the building and it gets dusty too quickly.

The quality of the residents are also lacking. We've seen people of different ethnic background, but by and large the majority of residents are probably Mainland Chinese, many being the younger (20's?) variety. Judging by the state of the garbage room and the various reminder memos posted by the building management company, a lot of the residents show very little respect for communal living -- or at least, a lot of them have a poor understanding of what constitute respectful communal living.

In attempt to curb the disrespectful and abusive living practices, the conceige team has adopted an overzealous approach to police and discourage these bad practices. But that in turn makes it super inconvenient for regular residents to just continue with their everyday living. Case in point -- there isn't even space to wait for 2 minutes to pick someone up from the front of side entrance. Visitor parking is also a gong show.

I was never a fan of that purchase, but unfortunately it wasn't my decision to buy there. And now the family member is complaining, some issues of which have previously been pointed out by yours truly.

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

I just did my walk through inspection today for The Met 2. 11th floor. Even with the window opens I couldn't hear much noise at all. Maybe coz it is still a few min walks from the skytrain?

I wasn't expecting the unit to be this nice actually. i was more thinking of renting it and then sell it. Now I kinda of want to keep it. The unit layout is actually nicer than what I expect. Some of the units I been have a lot of wasted space IE a long hallway that serves no purpose or with a tone of different concers. But for The Met2 it seems they really made use of all the space. Although the finishing could have been better. Hopefully all of the gets fix before the move in date. I also like the fact there are 3 evelators instead of 2.

Originally Posted by EvoFire

We were seriously interested in The Met when we were looking for a place. The show homes were pretty impressive(compared to many other places we looked at) and showed a great use of space for the listed square footage. We actually curiously went to look at a few of the "flippers" for sale and we weren't disappointed.

It shows the importance of sticking with a well known developer as we looked at units from a few of the smaller developers and they all had some sort of quality issue(s). Some of the developers need to learn that a few nice appliances do not make it a quality home.

[Hondaracer]

Stuff like that makes me not miss living in a high rise as ours was starting to show signs of General disrespect to the garbage/recycling procedures etc.

Home builders association has standards in terms of floor unevenesss, I beleive acceptable is like 1/8th" over 5 feet? So if your problem is worse than what the association covers you have a right to have it fixed. Although how they measure is very subjective and they would probably have someone measure it that knows ways around it.

Imo the first mistake was moving in or signing off on any problems like those before they were addressed.

[Presto]

It's really tough to do strata right. There needs to be balance in rule enforcement and common sense, and also reasonable residents that are willing to support a good budget and policies. Overall, I'm happy with the strata. It's been basically the same core group of people. They've been fiscally responsible, and their budgeting made sense. We have a healthy contingency fund, and after 10+ years, all the buildings are in good health. Meanwhile, the condo next door, of similar design, is a comparable shit show. They have a lot of renters and it shows with the condition of the buildings, inside and out.

[Tapioca]

It's definitely important to know what you're buying into when you purchase any strata property. After owning new and used strata properties, I would definitely favour used over new because you know the demographic makeup of the complex, how well the property is managed, and how the buildings have aged.
I hate to say it, but you want to buy into complexes that have higher fees and that are predominantly owned by established locals.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Traum

I have family living at the Met, and while I agree that the building and the units present well, I can't say I am too happy with the build quality, the quality of the residents, and the polices the conceige has adopted in attempt to mitigate the issues caused by the residents.

On initial build quality, I'd say it's roughly par for course for a typical new building. There is the uneven floor; baseboards that have a huge gap where it meets the floor at certain places; wall paint / touch up issues; baseboard heaters that sit a full 1+cm away from the wall / baseboard; lights that didn't work, etc. Some of these issues were addressed. Others we were told is not fixable (ie. the uneven floor and baseboard gaps). Most annoying are the recurring problems. We have an intermittently leaky ceiling that sees a growing water stain, usually after some sort of sustained heavy rainfall. Developer repair has been slow, and from what I can see, the are only patching up our visual in-suite problem without addressing / looking into the real cause.

The massive windows everywhere make the place quite hot in the summer, and too $$$ to heat up in the winter. We don't want to open the windows too much because there is construction on both sides of the building and it gets dusty too quickly.

The quality of the residents are also lacking. We've seen people of different ethnic background, but by and large the majority of residents are probably Mainland Chinese, many being the younger (20's?) variety. Judging by the state of the garbage room and the various reminder memos posted by the building management company, a lot of the residents show very little respect for communal living -- or at least, a lot of them have a poor understanding of what constitute respectful communal living.

In attempt to curb the disrespectful and abusive living practices, the conceige team has adopted an overzealous approach to police and discourage these bad practices. But that in turn makes it super inconvenient for regular residents to just continue with their everyday living. Case in point -- there isn't even space to wait for 2 minutes to pick someone up from the front of side entrance. Visitor parking is also a gong show.

I was never a fan of that purchase, but unfortunately it wasn't my decision to buy there. And now the family member is complaining, some issues of which have previously been pointed out by yours truly.

That definitely puts things into perspective. I guess first impressions isn't everything. I think other than the water leak issues, the other stuff doesn't sound too terrible. The big windows is a trend, I don't think there's much that can be done as that's what sells.

Not much you can do to control the quality of residents, especially when I think many units in the Met are probably rental properties. My strata has a strict no rental rule, it hurts resale, but with us being the ones actually living here it makes a much cleaner and easier to deal with population.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

That definitely puts things into perspective. I guess first impressions isn't everything. I think other than the water leak issues, the other stuff doesn't sound too terrible. The big windows is a trend, I don't think there's much that can be done as that's what sells.

Not much you can do to control the quality of residents, especially when I think many units in the Met are probably rental properties. My strata has a strict no rental rule, it hurts resale, but with us being the ones actually living here it makes a much cleaner and easier to deal with population.

Depends on who rents it. If it is most Chinese or Chinese international students then yea (this might sound harsh but this is true at least to my experience).

When I was looking to purchase a unit several of the units I went to were literally ruin/destroy by the tenants which also happen to Chinese students. I guess coz when they were in China Mom and Dad cleans after them and do all the house work. Now they are alone they don't really do them. One unit the washroom smell so bad even with the doors close, it have moles growing in the washrooms and shit/blood stains on the toilet seats. The kitchen is full of bags of garbage with juice coming out. The stove and the kitchen wall is cover with thick really burn grease. Literally some of the hardwood floor have dog pee/poo stains on them. Even agent said most likely everything needs to be replace to be livable again. Yet there are 2 Chinese international students living there with their dog.

Another one I went to is around Joyce area. When you enter the lobby I saw a guy (most like mid 20s) with a bag or chinese take out sauce dripping all over the lobby and into the elevator. He didn't even try to clean it up, just contiune to play on his phone.

One of our old tenants gf/bf studying at BCIT. They ever bother to vacum at all. When they left we had to throw away the bed/mattress we let them use. It was cover this mud/blood stains. Smell like shit I guess coz there are blood stains all over.

I never know people can actually live like this. I mean I am a pretty messy person and lazy person but god I would never fall to that level. I think one common feeling Chinese have is that since it is not their they just don't care. They didn't pay for it so why take such good care. If it is broken/ruin they aren't going to fix it. Also they aren't taught the basics common sense after they left home so they don't really know what to expect.

[CivicBlues]

^ Fuck people are disgusting. If I ever rent my place out to international students I'm asking for 3 months security deposit and a hold on their Daddy's Amex card.

[Great68]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

^ Fuck people are disgusting. If I ever rent my place out to international students I'm asking for 3 months security deposit and a hold on their Daddy's Amex card.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/hou...lines/gl29.pdf

"The Residential Tenancy Act requires that a security deposit must not exceed one-half of one month's rent. If one or more of the above payments, together with other monies paid, exceeds one-half of one month's rent then the remedies afforded by the Act would be available to a tenant. In addition, the Act provides that a landlord who contravenes these provisions commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine of not more than $5,000.

[CivicBlues]

^Yeah but stupid lazy fobs can't even dispose of garbage and flush their shit properly, what's the chance they're all caught up with the RTA?

[Harvey Specter]

The elephant in the room that no one wants to address...

OTTAWA – The International Monetary Fund is warning about the risks to the Canadian economy due to a possible correction in the housing market and urged governments to do more to protect against them.

In the preliminary findings of its annual review of the Canadian economy, the IMF said Wednesday that a further tightening of macroprudential and tax-based measures to mitigate speculative and investment activity should be considered.

It also called for greater co-ordination between federal and provincial regulators as well as government efforts to collect more comprehensive data on real estate transactions.

The housing market and high levels of household debt are often pointed to as areas of concern for the Canadian economy.

Ottawa has moved several times in recent years to tighten mortgage lending rules including expanded stress tests on mortgages.

A foreign buyer tax of 15 per cent was also implemented in the Vancouver region last summer, while Ontario recently announced plans for a similar levy for the Greater Toronto Area.

Moody’s Investors Service recently downgraded Canada’s six big banks amid concerns about consumer debt and housing prices that could leave them vulnerable.

Cheng Hoon Lim, the IMF’s mission chief for Canada, said there are a few policies that could help deter speculation in the housing market and alleviate concerns about rising debt burdens.

“Among these measures, a cap on household debt to income or more stringent qualification criteria for household debt above a certain threshold will go directly to addressing household indebtedness,” she said.

The IMF also encouraged B.C. and Ontario to replace their foreign buyer taxes.

“This could include a combination of prudential and tax-based measures that discourage speculative activity without discriminating between residents and non-residents,” it said.

[hud 91gt]

Its a big elephant. When it falls, its going to be loud. Whoever does it isnt going to be very popular either.

Ive always been on the fairly negative side of this speculative market, but I've even thought of betting big into a house lately.

[Spoon]

[Liquid_o2]

“Among these measures, a cap on household debt to income or more stringent qualification criteria for household debt above a certain threshold will go directly to addressing household indebtedness,” she said.

I think that is one good potential measure, but seriously? How is that going to stop speculation? We need multiple measures on both the domestic and international speculation side to get things calmed down.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by Liquid_o2

I think that is one good potential measure, but seriously? How is that going to stop speculation? We need multiple measures on both the domestic and international speculation side to get things calmed down.

THEY WON'T do that. Once the bubble pops where is the gov going to get their money. They are going to ride it as long as they can and hope nothing happens. Instead of popping the bubble they might try to let the air out bit by bit to reduce the damage.

[Harvey Specter]

I e-mailed a realtor friend a few days ago because I have a family member who is looking to buy a 1 bedroom condo and here's what he said...

Anything along the skytrain right now is difficult to get under $400,000.
For example, a development called 567 Clarke & Como in Coquitlam just took unit requests yesterday with starting prices at $350,000.
They received back around 3000 request forms for the 300 homes they have, and I'd say about 75% of those want a 1 bedroom around or below $400,000.

I don't believe for a second that all 3000 buyers are locals wanting a place to live. It's a classic pump and dump scheme happening right now in our RE market with no end in sight.

[westopher]

I'm for extreme measures. No one should be able to own more than 3 homes. No corporations should be allowed to own any homes unless rentals. I don't care. Tank the value of my home. I live here, so I sure as shit don't care.
Housing shouldn't be a commodity.

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by Harvey Specter

I e-mailed a realtor friend a few days ago because I have a family member who is looking to buy a 1 bedroom condo and here's what he said...



I don't believe for a second that all 3000 buyers are locals wanting a place to live. It's a classic pump and dump scheme happening right now in our RE market with no end in sight.

I just put a offer down Monday as a 'vip' buyer. They closed off floors 2-13 to buyers. You pick the floor plan you want and price you want to pay. They said by next week we should hear back to see if my offer got accepted or not.

Let's just say the offer I put down for 1 bed and den that was starting at like $370k was over $400k easily AND it might be rejected

Btw Everyone putting down offers was Chinese and everyone that was looking at the floor plans and samples was Chinese as well

Forgot to mention there was no 1 bed 1 bath available for VIP purchase

[Alpine]

https://mobile.twitter.com/FIVRE604

I follow this guys twitter casually. Lots of tweets about developers selling vancouver buildings offshore while offering discounts and "guaranteeing" cap rates.

On politics, its the same as corporate bs. Come in, shit all over the walls, ride the gravy train as long as possible, and then jump off before shit hits the fan, leaving the next person to come in to clean it all up.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by westopher

Tank the value of my home. I live here, so I sure as shit don't care.
Housing shouldn't be a commodity.

I applaud you to think this way. Housing/shelter is a basic human necessity. There should be heavy fines against any sort of speculation in basic necessities... same as farm lands, foods, cloth...

Sadly, too many younger people in the market can't afford to pop the bubble.

They have their entire life-saving (plus everything they'd get for years to come) tied in their home. They would live a miserable life for believing in this hype.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by westopher

I'm for extreme measures. No one should be able to own more than 3 homes. No corporations should be allowed to own any homes unless rentals. I don't care. Tank the value of my home. I live here, so I sure as shit don't care.
Housing shouldn't be a commodity.

Then you will have a economy downfall for years and years 10+ years. Think about how jobs/job sectors and directly or indirectly that relies on real estate. Sure tank the value of homes you also tank the economy along with job employment.

Take one good at Winnipeg. Sure housing is super cheap there you literally buy a mansion with 400k but you don't see people flocking their way there. It sucks there. There aren't much employment. Heck their whole DT is like 2 streets and that's it.

Housing only becomes a commodity when people can't even afford to rent. Which is not happening. Accept the fact Vancouver is changing. I hear people always complain Vancouver is a boring city with nothing to do. Well is becoming more and more fun with more restaurants, more to do, more attractions all these comes with a price, which put Vancouver on the map for investment. Unless of coz you want Vancouver to blast back to lates 80s and the 90s where literally after 9pm you have nowhere to go. All the fancy restaurants you like or try are gone.

You think Vancouver housing is bad? Check out other cities around the world and you will realize our real estate is still cheap here. Just because you are born here doesn't give you more rights than others. Don't like the fact you can't own? Make changes to your life. Buy farther away from the city, share a rental unit with friends to cut cost down, get a 2nd part time job, spend less. There is always a choice but I guess that's too much to ask.