Yeah I rescinded on my own $420K one bed, should be up $140K on assignment now. Such is life, can't win them all =)

Listings are still quite low, particularly in the sub 1 million category.

If listings don't pick up in the starter home category, I can't see prices going down, demand measures notwithstanding.

What do you guys think about this new development coming to South Van?


Fraser Commons at Marine ? South Vancouver Homes

Personally, I think the River District (along Marine between Victoria to Boundary) is a more desirable location, and one that will be completed much sooner. Marine Gateway is also somewhat more desirable due to the Canada Line. So for me, I don't see what advantages it has over these two -- meaning that it might have to resort to pricing to compete.

The Fraser Commons is also overlooking Mitchell Island, so sight-wise, even though it can be considered waterfront properties, it wouldn't appeal to me as a desirable waterfront property.

Lastly, I have long believed that Metro Van should really construct a Fraser Bridge that connects Vancouver to Richmond, using Mitchell Island as a base to make it cheaper and easier to build that bridge. It's never gonna happen under the current CoV policy, but if residential properties go up in that area and population density goes up, there could be justification for it.

There used to be a Fraser st bridge to Richmond apparently. Knight street bridge replaced it in the 70's.

I find this comical.

Main and 20th as described by The Vancouver Sun on March 3

Main & Twentieth designed with community in mind | Vancouver Sun

Main and 20th as described by The Vancouver Sun on Feb 21

New condos on former Mount Pleasant coffee shop site now up for sale | Vancouver Sun

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

^^^^ It'll cost u 1 mill now to live in the city 750-850sqft

Main st is done.. if anywhere is going to be the victim of high rents and no employees its stores along main

In the last year and a half about 10 different new stores have relocated to my hood of Hastings Sunrise, and i swear if i didnt talk to them individually you would think they were all in cahoots or reading from a script.. every single business owner said the same thing

"Comercial rent is too expensive, foot traffic is drying up, and residential rents are so high no one is spending a dime anymore"

It's a pretty good indicator when long time tenants like Burrit Bros etc. are closing shop

Personally i dont find it that great of a walk anymore anyways, not a spot to hang out. Bars and resty's are becoming more spread out and the ones that remain are pretty Meh

I believe the Burritt Bros' Main St property was family owned and they cashed out for about 11.5M.

Yah Burritt Bros cashed out and moved to Marine Drive (I believe), they did not get kicked-out of their space.

Main Street is still pretty good. I've lived near Main since 2014, and it definitely has gone through a lot of changes in the past 4 years, but it is still enjoyable with a lot of good places to eat and shop at. There is a high turnover, but I would say it is partly because many of the concepts that open up don't really make sense. It is about 30 blocks of commercial space, so naturally you will see annual changeover.

baha, 1st time homebuyer loan didn't even hit a quarter of the applicants it was projecting

did it actually help anyone out in the end?

HOME wreckers: B.C. cancels loan program for first-time homebuyers - British Columbia - CBC News

First time reading this and I'm really not surprised. I don't know a single person who used it or even considered using it.

My sister was considering using it but then just worked it out with my parents to draw from their LOC if she wanted to buy, so it was pretty much an afterthought shortly after looking into it

The interesting thing about the cancellation of the first time home buyers program is that it confirms that not many buyers actually used the program. I recall that the Twittersphere and some doomsayers, like that realtor Steve Saretsky, argued that this program was a major contributing factor to the run up in condo prices over the last year.

It was an interesting program, but if the government is serious about making home ownership easier to people who actually live and work here, it should look into restrictive covenants which preclude the sale of new properties for a certain number of years. There are several developers in the Lower Mainland that have partnered with CMHC using no down payment programs that are income tested and contain a restrictive covenant that precludes the sale of a property for 2 years. This is precisely the type of program that discourages flipping and provides an opportunity for people who actually earn local incomes to get on the property ladder.

it might've not been utilized much but i'm sure it did help drive up the speculative pricing in the short term

That sounds stupid to me. People can intend to live and work here but then life situations change (transfer, layoff, etc) which require them to re-locate. Seems like those people would get fucked over here.

This guy is a hypocrite idiot realtor. I doubt he gets any business because his only claim to fame is fear mongering on YouTube and the occasional CBC interview in disbelief about rising prices.

Here is the census of the Vancouver empty homes

https://globalnews.ca/news/4068194/v...pty-homes-tax/

"On Wednesday, the city said it collected a total of 183,911 submissions, of which 177,562 were occupied. It said 6,349 were declared vacant — some with exemptions. And 2,132 were homes for which the owner did not fill out the paperwork, and thus were deemed vacant by the city."

"According to the city, more than 60 per cent of the empty or under-used properties were condos, just over 33 per cent were detached houses and nearly six per cent were multi-family homes."

So that's about 8500 empty homes until they audit the cheaters

transient people can rent
there's always going to be circumstances (may be make exemptions) but if you're gonna put your roots down why would you sell within a year or two

Oh right, everyone can accurately predict when they're going to laid off or transferred.

I get it but not everyone is in an industry where you're likely to have to move away or get transferred to find work. I'm sure they could make it so if you prove you're actually moving away for work related reasons and not just bullshitting you could be exempt.

In Toronto, you can buy a pre-sale condo with a credit card online:

https://www.thestar.com/business/rea...edit-card.html

That works out to be about 4.3% of the total number of homes. As you said, once they audit the cheaters that number will rise. Imho, it's probably double that at least.

"According to the city, more than 60 per cent of the empty or under-used properties were condos, just over 33 per cent were detached houses and nearly six per cent were multi-family homes."

So that's about 8500 empty homes until they audit the cheaters[/QUOTE]

Anyone know what is considered "under-used" ie I have a two bedroom condo but live by my self?

Since the requirement from CoV to be deemed as "non-empty" is being lived in more than 180 days in a year, I'd imagine that anything less would be deemed as "under-used".