Myriarch posted:

It could - and I hope it does - play out like that. City hall doesn't need to stop the rezoning, just delay it until the bubble bursts. That $150 million premium on the land value will disappear immediately.

Reverse Centaur posted:

Number 4 paranoia reaches a new low in Vancouver

Reverse Centaur posted:

Number 4 paranoia reaches a new low in Vancouver

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://vanmag.com/city/molson-lands-development/

[quote]
...
I’m sympathetic to the idea that we need to find ways to create good, high-paying jobs in this city. But I’m not sure we do that by clinging to the economic formulas of the past. Yes, industrial land is valuable, and yes, we need to protect it—but not everywhere, and not always. Some people may want to wind the clock back to before the Expo lands were re-zoned and redeveloped, before the influx of foreign capital turned the grubby and gritty post-industrial northern shore of False Creek into an urban mecca. But were things really better back then, when we had all that extra vacant industrial land kicking around? And would the citizens of the future really be better served by us sitting on the Molson lands and preventing them from being developed in the name of preserving things as they were? I doubt it.
...

quote:

Canadian home prices and sales rose in March, showing the country’s housing market boom still had momentum even as separate factory data suggested an increase in economic growth at the beginning of the year may not be sustainable.

Canadian manufacturing sales tumbled far more than expected in February, data from Statistics Canada showed on Friday, retreating from recent gains and dampening expectations for growth in the month.

Sales fell 3.3 per cent, outstripping economists’ forecasts of a decline of 1.5 per cent and breaking a three-month run of gains. Volumes fell 2 per cent.

Sales were down in 16 out of 21 sectors, with motor vehicle and petroleum and coal product sales accounting for more than two-thirds of the decrease.

Analysts said the figures do not bode well for February gross domestic product after January’s surprisingly strong growth.

The numbers were “consistent with what we anticipate will be a streak of weaker economic data consistent with the global headwinds that will continue to restrain the Canadian economy,” wrote David Tulk, head of global macro strategy at TD Securities.

Still, he sees the first quarter GDP growing at a relatively strong pace of 2.9 per cent. Canada was briefly in recession last year and is still struggling to regain momentum as it grapples with cheap oil prices.

The housing market, a pillar of economic strength in the years since the financial crisis, was more rosy, with existing-home sales up 1.5 per cent in March.

Sales reached a monthly record of 45,137 units, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said. Sales in the hot markets of Vancouver and Toronto edged down, but they remained near records attained the month before.

CREA’S home price measure rose 9.1 per cent from the year before, making for the largest increase since June 2010.

The increase was mirrored in another release that showed the Vancouver market continued to buoy prices. Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index showed national home prices rose 0.8 per cent last month and 7 per cent from a year earlier.

Prices have become more varied lately, with price gains continuing in the hot markets of Toronto and Vancouver, the energy-sensitive regions slowing and the rest of the country plodding along.

The national home-price gain came mostly from a 2.8 per cent jump in Vancouver, where the region’s Real Estate Board reported the highest-selling March since it began tracking this data, on the heels of a record February.

Prices were up 0.9 per cent in Montreal and 0.3 per cent in Toronto.

The biggest drop was 3.1 per cent in Halifax. In Calgary, prices fell 0.3 per cent, their sixth consecutive monthly decline.

For Vancouver, March was the 15th consecutive month without a decline.

Analysts have debated whether Vancouver’s lofty price increases are sustainable or whether overseas buyers are boosting them.

quote:

Canadian home prices and sales rose in March, showing the country’s housing market boom still had momentum even as separate factory data suggested an increase in economic growth at the beginning of the year may not be sustainable.

THC posted:

Booourns posted:

I hear commercials for that company on every single radio break on every local station here in BC

Mandibular Fiasco posted:

I think the Lower Mainland is one big gasbag illusion of wealth. Incomes aren't that great here, but the commercials on the radio and local TV are all for debt consolidation and second/third mortgages. I can't square it, and I've stopped trying. Building a life here seems like a foolish idea, as even if you're successful in income, those who come from elsewhere who have money they didn't earn here, and those who got lucky by being born at the right time, will be far ahead. That minority does a number on the rest of us who would like to be able to live, work, and build a life in the community they grew up in.

Subjunctive posted:

Bought a place in Toronto (for under asking, no less), so expect the real estate crash to begin any day now.

sund posted:

let's get an australia level glut of rental units going on and let landlords fight each other to land a tenant far below the cost to service their mortgages.

Kafka Esq. posted:

Please tell me it was a 500k+ condo with a roof pool. Did you commit or not?

Cultural Imperial posted:

How much are they?

Reverse Centaur posted:

Not cheap at all, looks like 400k for your standard wood frame one bed condo.

http://www.rew.ca/properties/R2054156/204-23255-billy-brown-road-langley?property_search=378397787

I guess some people really like "riverfront living" even though the Fraser is the least pleasant water to live by in metro Vancouver imo. It was humid as hell and filled with bugs already.

Lexicon posted:

It seems like these implicit price floors have developed in the lower mainland of late. > 400k for a condo irrespective of where it is, > 1m for a SFH irrespective of where it is, etc. I reckon it's because the locals are so obsessed with owning - there's essentially no limit to their willingness to pay, at least up to the outer reaches of financial possibility.

Reverse Centaur posted:

I'm in Fort Langley right now, certifiably the middle of nowhere, and there are new condos and fake "old" craftsmans crammed in everywhere. So weird.

Cultural Imperial posted:

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/16816544/2837-ST-GEORGE-STREET-Vancouver-British-Columbia-V5T3R8


2 million half duplex y'all

Femtosecond posted:

You may consider Langley and surroundings to be horseshit but there are multi-millionaires that grew their businesses in Surrey and Langley that are not going to waste their time driving into work every day from West Vancouver. They're certainly not going to live in Whalley, they're going to live in one of the nicer parts of the region, and that's Fort Langley*. Unsurprisingly the prices are high.

I'm serious about how much better it is than the rest of the area. People who live there have told me that on weekends there's lineups out the door at their hip coffee shops and parking is a real problem, as people from surrounding shittier strip mall neighbourhoods of Langley drive in.

I was there this weekend. From a hipster urbanist point of view, it's honestly a better walkable community than most Vancouver neighbourhoods, which may have cool hip stores, but are on terrible arterial traffic sewers.

Source: I grew up South of the Fraser.

* South Surrey Ocean Park area is another place that rich South of Fraser people live.

quote:

Vancouver filmmaker captures historical, ’emotional character’ of abandoned Point Grey mansions

Corbie Fieldwalker is watching Vancouver crumble through the lens of a digital camera.

While on a stroll last July, the filmmaker and a friend stumbled upon a house left to rot in Point Grey, a neighbourhood that’s home to some of North America’s priciest real estate and coveted for its ocean, mountain and city views.

“We started thinking about the last few years of media coverage surrounding real estate, community and Vancouver’s rapidly changing identity, and how these properties could be used to frame those issue in an emotionally engaging way that may be lacking in the current conversation,” said Fieldwalker, who is 40 and grew up in the city.

The solution was obvious. Make films.

And so for the past nine months, Fieldwalker has been entering abandoned multimillion-dollar properties equipped with a DSLR camera and drone, shooting them from every angle he can before they’re gone forever.

So far, he’s filmed five properties in Point Grey and a few in the south Cambie area. Many of them sit behind blue fences, the telltale sign a backhoe is on its way.

Fieldwalker said accessing the properties is simple: “We just go up to them and shoot.”

In one film posted to Fieldwalker’s Vimeo page, the viewer is brought inside a 3,430 square-foot Point Grey teardown on Drummond Drive, which last year sold for $17.5 million.

Inside, the camera pans and dollies slowly over peeling paint, crumbling gypsum and broken glass, up a staircase and down hallways that show no signs of life, save for some graffiti. It would be the perfect set for a horror or post-apocalyptic film.

The films are the works of Arc Cine, a collaboration between Fieldwalker’s studio and his father’s firm, Rol Fieldwalker Architect.

They make up a project called “Point Grey,” and explore the nuanced relationships between architectural patterns, media and the viewer’s emotional response, Corbie Fieldwalker said.

Fieldwalker said he understands he’s trespassing and takes responsibility for it, but believes that because the properties are on unceded Coast Salish territory, they can’t truly be owned. Many have sat vacant for five or more years as investment properties.

“I’ve had no friction so far,” he said.

Fieldwalker said the films began as a personal project, but he now hopes they might facilitate discussion about architecture, history and how the city is valuated.

“There needs to be sort of a change in the value of the community,” he said.

“Right now, it’s about making money – and I understand, because houses are going for a million dollars over offer, and I don’t really blame these people – but it’s destroying the fabric of the city really quickly, I think.”

He doesn’t expect his films to change the views of Vancouver residents and the government, but hopes they might preserve memories of the neighbourhoods where they grew up.

“It’s more about an archival record that can be referenced as we develop our understanding and appreciation for this stuff,” he said.

He’s not alone in this task.

In recent years, others worried about the city’s fading history have created such projects as Vancouver Vanishes, Beautiful Empty Homes of Vancouver and Disappearing Dunbar.

According to city records, there were 974 housing-permit demolitions citywide in 2015. 917 were torn down in 2014, 859 in 2013 and 1,008 in 2012.

In 2013, city council approved a Heritage Action Plan aimed at reviewing “the policies and tools used to conserve and celebrate heritage resources.” The city approved its first-ever heritage conservation area in the First Shaughnessy District last fall.

The city issued 243 demolition permits of all types in the first three months of 2016, up from 207 in 2015. The “vast majority” of those were for single-family homes, spokesman Jag Sandhu said.

Lexicon posted:

It seems like these implicit price floors have developed in the lower mainland of late. > 400k for a condo irrespective of where it is, > 1m for a SFH irrespective of where it is, etc. I reckon it's because the locals are so obsessed with owning - there's essentially no limit to their willingness to pay, at least up to the outer reaches of financial possibility.

tagesschau posted:

What's the endgame here? Do they think they're going to flip it and sell to one of the crusty old guys who hang out all day at the bar next door?

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Can't believe this hasn't been posted lol:


http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/vancouver-filmmaker-captures-historical-emotional-character-of-abandoned-point-grey-mansions

You can watch the spooky video here:

https://vimeo.com/151753760

Ccs posted:

I was walking around Halifax today and there are so many freakin condos getting built here. Is Halifax also a speculative city or are developers just building out of the hope that it can become one?