OhYeah posted:

Yes, south of France is known for its terrible climate.

https://www.google.ee/search?q=st+tropez+france&biw=1920&bih=907&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Jlv2VKqyCon9ygOXv4LoBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

PT6A posted:

Why would you buy a castle when you could just buy a nice house, though? Castles are shittier in every possible way except looking awesome.

Kafka Esq. posted:

I wouldn't mind living in a place called the Vila Ephrussi du Rothschild Cap Ferrat.

Barudak posted:

When you're worth $8 billion I think you can afford to buy a castle, dress up as a lord, pay for top designers to create alt-history clothing styles and home designs, and then pay people to be your peasants with contractual obligation to attend certain festivals and holy days.

PT6A posted:

Not the same, but my Dad stayed at Le Grand Hotel Cap-Ferrat when he was a teenager somehow (because another, less expensive hotel had hosed up his and my granddad's reservation), and apparently it was the greatest place he'd ever stayed in his life before, or since. I feel like there's probably not much in the way of dives, shitholes or hostels around that area in general.

blah_blah posted:

Regulatory capture is a thing. The current iteration of the RE industry relies essentially on information asymmetry whereas individual citizens are only mildly inconvenienced by it in on average and forget that it exists except when they are looking to buy a house. Even though it's a pretty clear net negative to society, the former group is much more invested in maintaining the status quo than the latter group is in changing it.

Rime posted:

At $2000 a night I would expect the best hotel on earth, yes.

Throatwarbler posted:

Burj Al Arab is more than that according to their website. These days it heavily caters to Chinese tour groups though - about half the people I saw there were Chinese and Chinese speaking staff were on hand everywhere, so you might as well stay in Vancouver.

Rime posted:

At $2000 a night I would expect the best hotel on earth, yes.

David Corbett posted:

Hmm. For the same money, I could visit the French Riviera or the UAE. Tough choices, right there.

quote:

The latest real estate numbers for Vancouver confirm what agents and buyers have been noticing: it's been a hot winter, and shifting toward a sellers' market.

In February, Metro Vancouver home sales were up 20.2 per cent compared to the 10-year average for the month, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Listings also increased — up 11 per cent from the 10-year average for February — but not enough to meet demand.

Metro Vancouver real estate bidding wars spreading to suburbs

House prices: Calgary more affordable, Toronto and Vancouver pricier

"This is a very, very strong February, stronger than normal," said board president Ray Harris.

"I think it's the low interest rates ... and there's a lack of detached homes in the market place."

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board called last month its busiest February since 2007.

Sellers' market on horizon

Low supply has continued to drive house prices up in Vancouver, despite slumps elsewhere in Canada, according to new research by RBC Economics.

In February, Metro Vancouver saw the sales-to-active-listings ratio jump from 17 to 25.7 per cent, the first time in four years it's crossed the threshold of 22 per cent that signals the start of a sellers' market.

It was the highest the ratio has been in Metro Vancouver since March 2011, said Harris.

"One month does not make a market, but three consecutive months over 22 [per cent] would be a clear indication that we would be in a sellers' market," he said.

In the Fraser Valley, the sales-to-active-listings ratio was 26 per cent for detached homes, 22 per cent for town homes and 12 per cent for apartments.

etalian posted:

lmao I can't imagine someone going out of their way to vacation in the UAE.

PT6A posted:

I can, but they're usually horrible people who prove the adage that money can't buy taste. so the place is pretty much tailor-made for them.

PT6A posted:

I can, but they're usually horrible people who prove the adage that money can't buy taste. so the place is pretty much tailor-made for them.

quote:

Canadians take on even more debt, says new report calling for vigilance

Undeterred by a weakening economy and warnings to curb their borrowing, Canadians pulled out their credit cards and piled on more debt at the end of last year.

Consumer debt in Canada – a figure that includes mortgages – hit $1.529-trillion at the end of 2014, a 1.1 per cent increase from $1.513-trillion in the previous quarter and up 7.7 per cent from $1.42-trillion a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday by credit monitoring firm Equifax Canada.

“When compared to the same quarter last year national consumer demand for credit was driven mainly by credit cards,” the report said, noting that bank and auto loans also increased from year-earlier levels.

Excluding mortgages, the average consumer debt held by Canadians rose 2.9 per cent to $20,967.

“It’s a cautionary tale what we are currently seeing in the Canadian economy,” said Regina Malina, a senior director at Equifax Canada.

She noted that the rapid drop of oil prices may have caught many by surprise. “And that’s the point – consumers and business owners need to be more vigilant. When economic change happens, it can happen very quickly and can challenge previously observed stability of key economic and credit indicators.”

Despite concerns about consumer debt, the 90-day-plus delinquency rate has remained the same or declined in most regions, coming in at 1.09 per cent nationally in the fourth quarter, the lowest since 2008.

In December, Canada’s central bank issued another warning about rising levels of household debt, which is sitting near a record high of 163 per cent of disposable income.

When it lowered interest rates in January, the Bank of Canada cited falling oil prices and the risk of job losses and slower economic growth. That would leave already heavily-indebted households in an even more precarious situation.

Tuesday’s Equifax report comes just one day before the Bank of Canada’s next interest rate announcement.

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...rticle23263701/


rofl gently caress canadians

PT6A posted:

So true. $20,000 in consumer debt as an average? gently caress me, that's a lot of money.

quote:

For Mark Farrow, Vancouver’s booming real estate market has been his ticket to semi-retirement.

He bought a modest home in the trendy Kitsilano neighbourhood on the city’s west side for $279,000 in 1983. Last month, Mr. Farrow decided to cash in, agreeing to sell the property for $1,875,000. “If you look at pictures, you will see the house doesn’t have character. I’ve fixed it up, but there are no granite countertops or fancy kitchen,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

Mr. Farrow, 57, and his family have been among the winners in Vancouver’s red-hot real estate sector, where homes are being snapped up at record prices as sales volume surges amid a decline in total listings.

Agents in the country’s most expensive housing market say bidding wars have returned and weekend open houses are experiencing a jump in traffic.

“We’re seeing multiple offers for detached properties. It’s a seller’s market,” said Ray Harris, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Average prices climbed to a new high of $1,397,305 last month for detached houses in Greater Vancouver, including suburbs such as Burnaby and Richmond.

Greater Vancouver’s home price index (HPI) rose 6.4 per cent to a record $649,700 last month for detached homes, condos and townhouses. For detached homes, the region’s benchmark HPI reached a new high of $1,026,300, up 9.7 per cent from a year earlier.

The HPI is a representation of the typical house in an area, providing a better barometer of real estate trends than average prices, which skew the picture because the most expensive properties are included, according to housing industry officials.

Even using the HPI as a measure, prices are lofty, reaching $2,403,900 for detached homes on Vancouver’s west side. That’s up 12 per cent over the past year, 40.8 per cent over five years or 146.1 per cent over a decade.

There were 3,061 sales last month of existing properties on the Multiple Listing Service, up 21 per cent from February, 2014, and 20.2 per cent higher than the 10-year average for February.

Total listings fell 11.3 per cent year over year. The result has been a sales-to-active-listings ratio of 25.7 per cent – the highest since March, 2011. New listings increased last month, but fell short of offsetting brisk demand.

B.C. real estate agents consider it a balanced market when the sales-to-active-listings ratio ranges from roughly 15 to 20 per cent. It is deemed a buyer’s market below 15 per cent and a seller’s market above 20 per cent in the Vancouver region.

There is robust demand as people migrate from other provinces and internationally from countries such as China.

In Vancouver, Mr. Farrow and his spouse Elizabeth are preparing to move to Salt Spring Island, where they will have 20 acres to enjoy after settling into their newly built house this spring. They acquired the Salt Spring Island lot for $198,000 in 1995, and have spent roughly $800,000 on constructing a new home.

They plan to help buy a home in suburban Vancouver for their two grown sons, now aged 30 and 22. The two men have been living with their parents, given the high cost of housing.

Mr. Farrow, who has worked for 37 years in the boiler heating business, is pleased to have found an attractive offer for the two-storey Kitsilano property – nearly seven times the purchase price in 1983. “It seemed like a lot of money for a house back then,” he said, adding that it took 22 years to pay off the mortgage.

Real estate agents say bidding wars are focused on detached homes. In many instances, detached properties are being sold primarily for their land value, with developers eyeing prospects for building larger homes on a site.

In the Fraser Valley, which includes the sprawling and less expensive Vancouver suburb of Surrey, housing sales swelled 21.3 per cent. The HPI for detached homes in the Fraser Valley climbed last month to $581,400, up 4.2 per cent from February, 2014.

etalian posted:

With mortgage debt including, income to debt ratio is 163 right now.


It's important to note that before the US housing bubble it was mainly home loans driving the massive increase in credit above all other types of loans.

quote:

Almost all our wealth is in real estate': Rising interest rates could devastate couple’s retirement

In B.C.’s lower mainland, the Landarms (not their real names) — Warren, 37, and Betty, 35 — are betting that real estate will be the best investment they can make. The Landarms have two investment condos, one worth $250,000 and another worth $140,000, a $712,000 house and a belief that property will beat stocks and provide them with a pleasant income when they retire from their jobs as tech managers three decades from now.

To buy their house and two income properties, the Landarms cashed in $65,000 worth of stocks held in exchange-traded funds and their TFSAs, and added $50,000 cash for total down payments of $115,000. They have mortgages totaling $841,500 and pay $3,000 a month in principal and interest for their house and $1,526 for the condos. They also plunk down $4,100 a month on a $25,000 line of credit used to buy the rental properties. Those debt service charges, $8,626 a month, account for about 65% of their $13,286 total monthly income, which consists of their combined paycheques of $11,444 and rental income of $1,842. “Almost all of our wealth is in real estate,” Warren says. “We could diversify away from that, but we are also considering a small apartment building. We are conflicted.”

Baronjutter posted:

My friend just moved to Saltspring. There's basically two entirely separate populations on the island. The actual locals who live there full time and do something for work on the island, and rich "cabin" dwellers and they basically don't interact. Even the rich idiots who think they're totally living a simple cabin life and are toooootaly one of the locals on ol' Salty.

quote:

Refugee immigrants are reporting higher incomes to the Canada Revenue Agency than investor-class immigrants, according to data compiled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

Furthermore, the rate of investor immigrants reporting any income whatsoever is far below the Canadian average.

The findings, reported last week by Ian Young of the South China Morning Post, may indicate the expected social and economic benefits of the investor-class program have not shown dividends.

“The data that suggests many investor migrants tend to treat Canada as some kind of holiday resort or educational/retirement bolt hole, while doing business back ‘home’ is quite clear,” wrote Young on his website.

While the investor-class program was scrapped last year, a similar, smaller pilot program, the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital, was announced last December.

In the old program, more than half of all investors chose B.C. as their destination in the late 2000s, with over 5,000 coming into the province annually, according to CIC.

While there is no available regional data on where exactly the investors landed, Richmond saw 18,685 new immigrants from 2006 to 2011, according to National Household Survey data.

In Richmond, long standing complaints over lack of integration has City Hall presently undertaking a public consultation process on non-English signs throughout the community and their perceived threat to "community harmony."

According to CIC, business immigrants have accounted for seven per cent of Canada’s total immigration since 1980 and in 2010 investor-class immigrants — who, as a condition for entrance, were required to prove net worth in the millions and invest $800,000 in Canada — accounted for 88 per cent of all business immigrants.

According to CIC, investor immigrants reported average earnings of about $18,000 in their first year and just $28,000 after 15 years. After three years, only 47 per cent of such immigrants reported any income. The Canadian average is 67 per cent.

After five years, only 39 per cent reported income, suggesting investor immigrants may leave the country (or declare non-residency) after the citizenship process is complete.

Meanwhile, refugees (those who come to Canada under hardship) reported first-year average incomes of $20,000 and after 15 years those incomes rose to $30,000. Two-thirds of refugees reported income by their fifth year, on par with Canada’s average.

More troublesome for Young is that similar rates of income after 15 years are found with the spouses and children of the initial, principal applicant.

“It’s particularly worrisome considering that the biggest cohort (40 per cent) of dependents upon arrival is made up of children aged 10 to 19. These (children) would be 25-34 after 15 years, and should be earning good money. But they aren’t.”

As well, Young adds, “the same phenomenon of a decline in tax-reporting rates could be seen in spouses and children, suggesting some of them, too, head for the exits.”

“The issue is not with immigrants or immigration in general, it is with wealth migration schemes in particular. …Should Canada wait for the grandchildren of investor immigrants to join the workforce before seeing the supposed benefits of millionaire migration?” asked Young on his blog.

The newly released CIC data, from 2012, corroborates February 2014 statements made by J. Ian Burchett, Consul General of Canada in Hong Kong:

"Originally developed decades ago, immigrants coming through these out-dated programs are not required to demonstrate important skills, like official language ability (French or English), that are integral to Canada’s modern economic immigration programs. A recent survey concluded that immigrant investors have the lowest official language ability of any immigrant category, including refugees. That hinders their successful integration into Canadian society. Other data on immigrant investors indicate they bring limited benefits to the Canadian economy and are less likely than other immigrants to stay in Canada over the medium to long term," stated Burchett.

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/03/03/almost-all-our-wealth-is-in-real-estate-rising-interest-rates-could-devastate-retirement/

quote:

Unstable land needs firm foundations

Prosper usually looks at macro economics yet a micro example of what can go wrong in the property market – very, very wrong – might aid your concentration.

Andrew, a Sydney ‘investor’ bought properties in Mackay and Blackwater Queensland, “when rents were crazy and out look was bright (sic).”

He posted his entirely credible dilemma on the Somersoft property investor forum.

He paid $495k for a Blackwater rental returning $49,400 pa gross – a hearty 9.9 per cent. Blackwater houses workers at the BMA and Curragh coal mines. With coal prices in the doldrums and layoffs creating plenty of vacancies, agents now value the property at $200k and estimate its rental potential at 18,200 pa gross. The property carries a mortgage of $475k at 4.89 per cent interest or $23,200 pa.

Andrew’s other property in Mackay cost $485k for a passing rent of $36,400 pa, or 7.5 per cent. Now, it is worth $380k and market rents are around $10,400 pa gross. The property carries a mortgage of $450k at 4.89 per cent interest or $22,000 pa.

Violent re-pricing indeed.

Rule of thumb says direct costs, rates, land tax, etc, would be half the gross, certainly on the later rents. So his net rents of around $29,000 support an interest cost of $45,200 pa, or a net loss of $16,200 pa, assuming nil vacancies.

Clearly unhappy with his position, Andrew wants out. He faces a loss of $70k on the Mackay property and $300k on Blackwater if he sells. I suspect these figures disregard Stamp Duty and other transaction costs.

He says, “I have a house in Sydney that has about $500k equity. My mum lives with my family who has contributed into this purchase so selling this property is not an option.”

That equity isn’t his to risk in support of his rental investments. Mum and family would be unimpressed with the idea of selling Baulkum Hills for a Queensland adventure.

“Will this get worse???” he asks plaintively.

His horror story is being repeated all over Queensland and Western Australia. Goaded into action by an army of spruikers in an anecdote-rich, fact-poor media, a naive investor class saw stellar yields and paid a seemingly reasonable capitalization. He thought he won the lottery, when in fact the winner was the vendor.

Little can be done for Andrew and his very hard life lesson.

Yet there is an insight available in what government can do in a volatile land market.

Andrew pays State Land Tax on both Queensland rentals. Valuations are conducted every two years, which softens his liability on the way up but doesn’t retreat nearly quickly enough in a falling market. In an era of wild land price gyrations, government should step up to annual valuations, both to moderate the rise and ease the fall. While this sounds like I am recommending annual revaluation of every parcel of land in the country, it is entirely possible to value half each year and interpolate the rest. SLT already piggy-backs on council valuations, so this is a cost-less exercise.

Land tax is a powerful automatic stabiliser, if we use it properly.

The investor frenzy in Sydney would be less if their bidding up of land prices was immediately transmitted into higher SLT. Dizzy buyers would get a good kicking from existing owners for driving up their costs, rather than the slap on the back for increasing values.

- See more at: http://www.prosper.org.au/2015/03/04/unstable-land-needs-firm-foundations/#sthash.hmqTpSIQ.dpuf

The Goon posted:

So it just seems as if this bubble keeps expanding, markets keep getting hotter, prices keep rising. Even the oil crash didn't do anything. What will it take for this thing to pop?

Rime posted:

Can confirm, know a guy who did two years there as a junior engineer and came home with nearly half a million in his pocket. He says he'll never go back, though, and related such hilarious stories as the time when he was filling up his work truck and a pair of royals drove into the gas station at high speed, ran the attendant over, and then started beating him for getting blood on the car.

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Professor Shark posted:

I knew someone who was over there working as a private tutor for some rich guys kids. She couldn't praise it enough, talking about how gorgeous it was, how respectful everyone living there is, how the shopping is fantastic, and how you didn't even need to drive since you could hire a car and driver so easily.

One day I told her that I'd heard it was a paradise, but only if you're a wealthy local or White, and that it was a literal slave country. She gave me a squinty-eyed-gently caress-you-smile and told me that I was at least right about it being great if you're White

At least I didn't have to hear about it anymore after that.

PT6A posted:

Why would you buy a castle when you could just buy a nice house, though? Castles are shittier in every possible way except looking awesome.

OhYeah posted:

Yeah, you're right. If I had a million dollars, I would buy a house in Vancouver on a beach in Malibu instead: http://www.trulia.com/property/3164614464-29500-Heathercliff-Rd-171-Malibu-CA-90265#photo-7

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...rticle23276211/


gently caress this loving city