Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

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HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

Furnaceface posted:

I have heard people unironically claim this as the best reason to move here.

hahahahahaha

# ? Jul 22, 2016 05:41

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# ? May 10, 2024 22:50

The Butcher: Apr 20, 2005; Well, at least we tried.; Nap Ghost

I sometimes wonder if the "best place on earth" thing played some tiny like sub 1% role in Vancouver blowing the gently caress up.

I'm envisioning some corrupt Chinese businessman sitting on a mountain of cash he needs to move out of the country sitting at his computer and thinking "where is the best place to live?" (because why would you want anything other than the very best and most expensive? :china:

)

So he pulls up a translator and jams in BEST PLACE EARTH, copy pastes the result into the search engine and BAM, up comes the BC government website, "please come invest here we will even suck your dick for free, PS its the very best place on earth, it says it right in the title graphic" and he's like SOLD!

Had to have been at least a couple people.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 05:42

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

It's certainly responsible for Vancouverites developing a superiority complex dwarfing that of all other cities on earth in recorded history.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 06:07

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

The Butcher posted:

"please come invest here we will even suck your baby dick for free, PS its the very best place on earth, it says it right in the title graphic" and he's like SOLD!"

This is why we switched away from SUPER natural BC, ghosts scare away foreign money.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 06:11

Meat Recital: Mar 26, 2009; by zen death robot

Femtosecond posted:

Folks need to get one of those sweet Hootsuite jobs so when they're evicted from their Burnaby three story walkup they can live at work, sleeping in a dot com sleeping pod and having a 0 minute commute.

Dot com sleeping tube makes me think of The Matrix. 0 minute commute! Cheap rent! Best place on desolate future earth !!

# ? Jul 22, 2016 07:20

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

Baronjutter posted:

This is why we switched away from SUPER natural BC, ghosts scare away foreign money.

We switched back though. Why? :iiam:

[edit]Sorry I posted a ghost, please don't take my equity[/edit]

# ? Jul 22, 2016 08:19

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Femtosecond posted:

Folks need to get one of those sweet Hootsuite jobs so when they're evicted from their Burnaby three story walkup they can live at work, sleeping in a dot com sleeping pod and having a 0 minute commute.

hootsuite got rid of all the sleeping pods i think but there's a weird cabin thing in the park down the road you could maybe sleep in

# ? Jul 22, 2016 09:02

UnfortunateSexFart: May 18, 2008; ð» ððð« ð·ððð·
ð ð ð ð« ð®ð ð¾ð ð ð¡ððð

Hootsuite has a mobile sauna in their parking garage, you could sleep there for a while before anyone notices.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 09:09

Femtosecond: Aug 2, 2003

quote:

Empty houses untouched while renters evicted in Burnaby

A cul-de-sac with multi-million dollar houses � some apparently empty � sits undisturbed and safe from development near Metrotown in Burnaby even as RCMP forcibly evicted protesters from a rental building facing demolition.

Houses on Barbell Place are assessed at around $1.8 million. The street is immediately adjacent to Royal Oak Skytrain Station, but the properties are not up for redevelopment in the name of putting density near transit.

"It's a great neighbourhood � Burnaby's best kept secret," said one resident along Barbell Place who didn't want to give his name.

It's a stark contrast that illustrates a divided Burnaby, where attempts to channel voracious appetite for development near its town centres and transit lines has left winners and losers.

Losers include those evicted from some 300 units in low-rise, rental buildings as they are turned into high-rise condos. The three-storey building at Imperial Street and Dunblane Avenue is slated to become a 26 storey building.

Seven protesters were arrested there Wednesday after a 12-day squat, as the RCMP enforced a court injunction to allow the developer Amacon to continue its work.

Many of those tenants' rents were controlled in the range of $500 to $700 a month for a one-bedroom, a rent that can't be found anywhere nearby, said one woman who spoke at a press conference held by protesters Wednesday.

"Your Metrotown plan doesn't include them. Where will you put them? You put them on the street?" said a woman who gave her name as Sherry and said she lived in a nearby rental unit.

The buildings along Imperial Street are in the zone demarcated for development because it's in the Metrotown Regional Town Centre, which is bounded by Imperial Street to the south, Royal Oak Avenue to the East, Boundary Road to the West, and extends as far as Bond Street to the North.

Those boundaries were drawn because the town centre is a hub of business and residential use and is close to transit, said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan.

"We're focusing higher density around transit stations," Corrigan said. He said the planning for the towers had been completed in 1989.

Burnaby city council's rezoning of that stretch along Imperial Street from RM3 � with a 12 metre maximum height � to Comprehensive Development started in November 2015 and concluded in April 2016, city documents show.

Barbell Place, south of Imperial Street, is considered outside Metrotown Regional Town Centre, even though it has ready access to Royal Oak Skytrain Station.

No one answered the doors at several houses in the neighbourhood; one house had newspapers piling up on its front steps, and one neighbour said he had seen no one there in a long time.

The only duplex in Barbell Place appears to be two five-bedroom houses connected by a small joining structure. Each half duplex in that building is assessed at $1.08 million. The property as a whole is wider than any of the buildings that are being demolished north of Imperial Avenue.

Ivan Drury, one of the protesters arrested at the squat, said he believes the city listens to homeowners � and not to renters.

"There's asymmetrical citizenship," said Drury. "If you own your own detached home, the message from council is that they belong and they won't be disturbed, in a system that values property ownership above all other freedoms. And renters who don't own property are treated as disposable and are actually being systematically replaced."

UBC Geographer Craig E. Jones, who has been studying the fate of low-rise buildings of this vintage, said almost all of the ones in Burnaby fall into areas deemed by the city as places to densify.

"For whatever reason, the homeowners tend to have more sway with Burnaby city hall than renters," he said.

And hundreds more units could also disappear if the city of Burnaby decides to allow that as part of its updated Metrotown plan, he said.

"Should the plan update show some more rezonings we could see all of those places redeveloped," Jones said.
The City of Vancouver protects low-rise rental buildings, he said, though many are not under the same development pressures as those near Metrotown, Jones said.

Burnaby's mayor defended his city's decision � blaming the hardship faced by the evicted renters on failures at the provincial and federal levels to fund affordable housing. He said reversing the city's decision to rezone the low-rise rentals would be unfair to the developer.

As for why his council's development plans had left out the possibility of allowing development in low-density, private single family homes, the mayor said, "It's our community's wish to see single family homes protected."

gently caress Derek Corrigan. What a poo poo head.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 15:41

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

To make housing supply omelette you need to break a few low income eggs

# ? Jul 22, 2016 15:52

MickeyFinn: May 8, 2007; Biggie Smalls and Junior Mafia some mark ass bitches

Femtosecond posted:

Craig E. Jones posted:
For whatever reason, the homeowners tend to have more sway with Burnaby city hall than renters

gently caress Derek Corrigan. What a poo poo head.

Maybe because your entire governmental system acts like renters aren't real people. You should start there.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 16:16

Furnaceface: Oct 21, 2004

MickeyFinn posted:

Maybe because your entire governmental system acts like renters aren't real people. You should start there.

Sadly that isnt just a BC thing. I think only Quebec has any real leaning towards helping and protecting tenants? Ontario isnt bad but I guess but there is certainly a noticeable shift in who the provincial and city governments are courting and its homeowners.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 16:35

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Femtosecond posted:

gently caress Derek Corrigan. What a poo poo head.

Burnaby has the worst civic governance I have ever seen.

At least Vancouver knows what they are getting when they elect their bought and paid for developer shills. Burnaby's city council is BCs high water mark of "left-wing politics", and it is seriously offensive.

The BCNDP came to Corrigan's defence over those evictions btw.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 16:45

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

I lol whenever old stock white people in the west side complain about property taxes. They're like 30% higher in Burnaby so shut the gently caress up idiots

# ? Jul 22, 2016 17:54

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

If complaining about taxes, property taxes should be the most attractive to FYGM people. They take all the money and pool it on services that nearly exclusively benefit landowners, and outsizedly benefit those in suburbs. It's the federal and provincial taxes that are used on dirty poors.

# ? Jul 22, 2016 18:43

Sundae: Dec 1, 2005

cowofwar posted:

If complaining about taxes, property taxes should be the most attractive to FYGM people. They take all the money and pool it on services that nearly exclusively benefit landowners, and outsizedly benefit those in suburbs. It's the federal and provincial taxes that are used on dirty poors.

Why support FYGM taxes when you can instead be a short-sighted little poo poo who thinks he's saving money by not paying taxes and instead paying even more for private schools, third-party garbage service, septic tanks, etc? :haw:

# ? Jul 22, 2016 18:59

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Sundae posted:

Why support FYGM taxes when you can instead be a short-sighted little poo poo who thinks he's saving money by not paying taxes and instead paying even more for private schools, third-party garbage service, septic tanks, etc?

This what I love about all those lovely unincorporated HOA communities in the states. They'll rant on about how it's so great they're not under the city government's thumb and don't have to pay the insane property taxes of like $500 a year. Oh but the HOA has a bunch of insane rules that would make the most NIMBY city council look libertarian, have to constantly hire private companies for road upkeep, have a parking enforcement contract with a private company that ends up costing them money and constantly fines the poo poo out of residents and their guests, private garbage collection. Instead of a cheap local city funded rec centre they just have a tiny private pool they pay for upkeep for. Then they'll defer upgrades to their pipes and septic systems for years.

A lot of people rather pay more for less if they feel like it's their "choice" and the things are just for them, rather than pay collectively and get more but filthy others might benefit too. I don't want my property taxes spent on bike lanes on the other side of the city!!

# ? Jul 22, 2016 19:41

Tighclops: Jan 23, 2008; Unable to deal with it; Grimey Drawer

So the guys at work are starting to talk about a housing crash and related economic calamity openly

I am now convinced something is going to go down in the next 12 to 18 months

# ? Jul 23, 2016 10:32

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

I've been saying late 2016 to early 2017 for two years now, and so far it's not looking wrong.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 15:13

Reince Penis: Nov 15, 2007; by R. Guyovich

Tighclops posted:

So the guys at work are starting to talk about a housing crash and related economic calamity openly

I am now convinced something is going to go down in the next 12 to 18 months

I don't have search but pretend I'm quoting every poster itt who's said this. I assume all of us would be there.

I see a cyclical recession coming in the next 18 months but so long as interest rates stay a quarter basis point above zero this housing bubble is going to keep chugging along. Global uncertainty will keep money coming into the country + a huge Fort Mac rebuild that is starting in the next few weeks will generate domestic demand for commodities.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 15:37

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

I'm not predicting a crash. This bubble makes so little sense I don't understand how we're not already in a deep depression.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 16:04

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

https://twitter.com/george_chen/status/756775462110531584

How long until someone picks up that torch in Canada?

# ? Jul 23, 2016 16:06

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

namaste faggots posted:

I'm not predicting a crash. This bubble makes so little sense I don't understand how we're not already in a deep depression.

There's that great moment in the Big Short where mortgages started drying up in 2007 and yet the market went up anyway.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 16:15

Powershift: Nov 23, 2009

PK loving SUBBAN posted:

I don't have search but pretend I'm quoting every poster itt who's said this. I assume all of us would be there.

I see a cyclical recession coming in the next 18 months but so long as interest rates stay a quarter basis point above zero this housing bubble is going to keep chugging along. Global uncertainty will keep money coming into the country + a huge Fort Mac rebuild that is starting in the next few weeks will generate domestic demand for commodities.

Housing starts in calgary have dropped from 17,131 in 2014 to 13,033 to probably under 8000 this year. Edmonton is pretty simlar. The rebuild of fort macmurray over the next 2 years won't even take up the slack of the 2 big cities in alberta.

And that's if they even bother rebuilding. High river was destroyed by a flood in 2013. nearly 3 years later, almost nothing has been rebuilt, most of it hasn't even been torn down yet. I took these pictures last fall, which was still more than 2 years after the flood. Straight up zombie movie poo poo.

http://imgur.com/a/vWUt0

And with oil being in the shitter and the oilsands projects predicting 5 years ago that by this point they would be reducing construction labor jobs by 80% at this point as projects finished up, there is even less reason to live in fort mac as there is to live high river.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 16:18

Postess with the Mostest: Apr 4, 2007; Arabian nights
'neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
could fall and fall hard
out there on the dunes

Subjunctive posted:

How long until someone picks up that torch in Canada?

You already can deduct a percentage of mortgage interest if you're self employed and work from home.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 16:24

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

Ikantski posted:

You already can deduct a percentage of mortgage interest if you're self employed and work from home.

Clearly the same thing.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 16:26

HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

namaste faggots posted:

I'm not predicting a crash. This bubble makes so little sense I don't understand how we're not already in a deep depression.

Yeah, I'm pretty much accepting that the rules of economics no longer apply and real estate is in fact going to go up forever somehow.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 17:09

Sticko: Nov 24, 2007; Outrageous Lumpwad

Subjunctive posted:

https://twitter.com/george_chen/status/756775462110531584

How long until someone picks up that torch in Canada?

This can be done in Australia, although only for investment properties. This has of course led to a sane and sensible market.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 17:45

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

Sticko posted:

This can be done in Australia, although only for investment properties. This has of course led to a sane and sensible market.

Yeah, that's true in Canada as well for rental properties. I think making it the general case for primary residences would be a pretty big shift, if likely populist-political brilliance.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 18:51

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/suzanne-ma/startups-choosing-vancouver_b_11072328.html

quote:

We live and work in one of the "least affordable" cities in the world -- at least, that's what a lot of people are calling it these days. So why did we choose to build our startup in a place like Vancouver?

These days, we're hearing a lot about people who can't seem to find jobs that would allow them to buy a home or even pay the rent in Vancouver. The latest numbers from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and the latest census paint a very stark picture indeed:

The benchmark price for a detached home in Greater Vancouver has climbed 30.1 per cent in the past year, to $1.4-million. Meanwhile, the median family income in the Vancouver metropolitan area is $73,390 -- about $3,000 lower than the Canadian average.

(Note: The "benchmark" price is used by the real estate board to describe what it calls a "typical property" in the market, taking into account bedrooms, lot size, and other factors, and is not to be mistaken for an average or median price.)

It's no wonder there have been reports of an exodus �- people leaving Vancouver and moving elsewhere in the province or the country in search of affordability. But what about the people who stay?

quote:

Why we choose Vancouver

There are so many reasons to love Vancouver. It's a stunning city on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, with easy access to the great outdoors: mountains, beaches and lovely forests filled with towering Douglas Firs and Western Cedars. But aside from the obvious signs of "livability" - the Economist magazine ranked Vancouver as the third most livable city in the world in 2015 -- there are many other things keeping us here.

Talent

Finding good people is probably one of the biggest challenges facing a fast-growing team.

While there may be a lot of talent in Silicon Valley, there's a lot less competition for really exceptionally talented people in Vancouver and the people we do find tend to be more loyal (sticking around with a company for much longer than their San Francisco counterparts who tend to bounce around a lot, looking for the next unicorn opportunity.)

Vancouver also shares the same timezone with Seattle and San Francisco, which makes quick business trips easy. This allows us to stay connected to larger ecosystems and markets while keeping our team in Vancouver.

Lower salaries

Vancouver's salaries are not high. The average software engineer in Vancouver makes $60,876 CAD a year while software engineers in San Francisco, New York and Seattle make well over $100,000 CAD annually. Even Toronto outpaces Vancouver with software engineers earning an average of $63,644 a year. (Note: while the cost of living in San Francisco and New York is even higher, at least we see higher salaries to help compensate.)

Interestingly, Vancouver's lower salaries actually make it easier for us to build a strong team (ie. grow) while maintaining a decent runway (ie. not running out of money). As an early-stage startup, we've been able to develop our technology with a smaller investment and keep more equity in our company. Of course, we do our best to give as much compensation as we can to our amazing team members, and we're lucky that we can offer them enough to live comfortably in Vancouver.

Government grants

By choosing to stay in Canada, we have access to research and development grants from the federal government.Startups throughout Canada can receive funding from Ottawa's Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive program. SR&ED refunds 35% on qualified expenditures, while the B.C. government offers an additional 10% incentive. And there are generous grants from the National Research Council that reimburse up to 80% of the salaries we pay our software engineers dedicated to innovative research and development projects. Thank you, Canada!

lol gently caress you suzanne ma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-bissonnette-53154029

does this motherfucker even have money or is this a really elaborate scam

namaste friends fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jul 23, 2016

# ? Jul 23, 2016 19:36

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

http://www.policynote.ca/unbalanced-and-inequitable-growth/#.V5OMyBeEGt0.twitter

quote:

The BC economy�s unbalanced and inequitable growth

Skyrocketing property transfer tax revenues have been in the news the past few days, but the bigger story, well-documented in a recent Huffington Post article, is how dependent the entire BC economy is on the unsustainable and socially damaging housing market.

It is instructive to reread the 2012 BC Jobs Plan to see how far the economy has diverged from what was intended. The core of the Jobs Plan was natural resource development, with more efficient regulatory processes and the pursuit of new markets in Asia. It was, at its core, all about LNG, mining and other resource sectors.

However Statistics Canada data clearly shows that didn�t take place. There has been growth in the BC economy over the last four years, but over one quarter of the total growth in BC�s gross domestic product (the standard measure of total output in the economy) has been in real estate services. And real estate services combined with residential construction has accounted for over one third of the entire growth in the economy over the last four years.

Resource industries have made no significant contribution to the growth of the BC economy. Output in agriculture, forestry and fishing has been flat, and in mining and energy there has been a decline in output since the Jobs Plan went into effect.

What we are witnessing is not just unsustainable, but also unbalanced growth. The table below, showing unemployment rates by region in the province, clearly indicates the disparity between regions benefiting from the housing boom and the rest of the province. Unemployment rates in the south coastal region over the last four years have fallen to very low levels, but have increased everywhere else. In the Northeast the rate of unemployment is as high or higher than what Alberta is experiencing.

Unemployment Rates by Region
(Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey)

In addition to being regionally imbalanced, the growth we are experiencing in British Columbia is, by any measure, extraordinarily inequitable. People who own homes are doing very well. They are realizing more in capital gains than they or other workers (except perhaps those in real estate and other housing related industries) could ever hope to earn in labour income. But those who do not own homes�particularly those who live in Vancouver, Victoria or other urban centres with rapidly rising costs of housing�are seeing their real disposable income after housing costs sharply decline. It truly is not what governments of any political stripe would want for the population as a whole.

Though well masked by the housing bubble, there clearly is the need for a new economic development strategy in BC. It is not just that the bubble will eventually burst, it is that growth from the bubble is leaving too many regions and people behind.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 19:40

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...rticle31083798/

quote:

ConocoPhillips is cutting up to 300 jobs in its Canadian operations, the division�s third round of layoffs since the energy-sector downturn began nearly two years ago.

The reductions, representing up to 14 per cent of ConocoPhillips Canada�s work force, are expected to be completed by the end of September, spokesman Rob Evans said.

Mr. Evans said layoffs will be in the range of 250-300 employees. About 45,000 energy-sector jobs have been lost since late 2014, when oil prices began to collapse due to a global oversupply.

�The vast majority of reductions will be in our Calgary head office and the details on which specific parts of the business will be impacted are still being worked out,� he said.

The Canadian unit of the Houston-based oil major cut 200 jobs and let another 100 contractors go in March 2015. Another 400 staff were laid off in October.

The newest cuts will be among 1,000 job reductions across ConocoPhillips operations, with most targeting North America.

maybe they can join do it ironically in the economic growth miracle that is victoria

# ? Jul 23, 2016 20:08

Majuju: Dec 30, 2006; I had a beer with Stephen Miller once and now I like him.

Note that mining executive compensation has steadily increased even as the companies are laying off hundreds of people, proof the system is working

# ? Jul 23, 2016 21:45

Ccs: Feb 25, 2011

The government is paying 80% of software engineers salaries? That's even higher than what they pay into film salaries.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 21:56

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

Ccs posted:

The government is paying 80% of software engineers salaries? That's even higher than what they pay into film salaries.

Seriously. gently caress the startup industry.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 22:09

flashman: Dec 16, 2003

namaste faggots posted:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...rticle31083798/

maybe they can join do it ironically in the economic growth miracle that is victoria

It'll be as if the Beverly hillbillies were drawing ei

# ? Jul 23, 2016 22:46

blah_blah: Apr 15, 2006

namaste faggots posted:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/suzanne-ma/startups-choosing-vancouver_b_11072328.html

6 person startup. She's the CEO's wife.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 23:06

mastershakeman: Oct 28, 2008; by vyelkin

so they pay a pittance that's 80% reimbursed and then claim it's a comfortable wage for one of the most expensive cities in the world?

# ? Jul 23, 2016 23:34

namaste friends: Sep 18, 2004; by Smythe

mastershakeman posted:

so they pay a pittance that's 80% reimbursed and then claim it's a comfortable wage for one of the most expensive cities in the world?

Probably a ba in gender studies, can't do math, writes stupid articles.

# ? Jul 24, 2016 00:07

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# ? May 10, 2024 22:50

RBC: Nov 23, 2007; IM STILL SPENDING MONEY FROM 1888

They're straight up saying wages have been surppressed and they're there to take advantage of it while sucking on the generous corporate welfare tit of the government.

# ? Jul 24, 2016 01:01

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

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