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

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

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

In hindsight I probably should have bought when we could have scraped together enough of a downpayment and just barely had the income to afford a 250k or so condo in a 70's ish wood frame building. It would have gone up modestly in value, been in the neighbourhood we want, but most importantly we would have felt way more secure in our housing situation. Renting in Victoria loving sucks because you know there's a good chance you're going to eventually get demovicted if your place is even remotely affordable. If your building is small enough or old enough to be affordable, it means the owner could make a poo poo ton more money selling the lot to a developer who can turn that 5-10 unit 1960's apartment near the end of its life into 20-30 300-600k condos, all while paying the same property taxes on the lot. In fact the tax system basically punishes landlords that keep their properties rental, which is extremely hosed up.

But 7-10 years ago we didn't 100% know where our careers would take us. Kids were still in the cards, moving cities was still in the cards, and both of us were working ok-paying but temporary jobs so it felt extremely risky to buy when it would have pushed our finances to the absolute limits. If I knew what our situation would be like today, I'd 100% have bought a condo simply for the security of not having to move every few years. Breaking even on the equity side would just be a bonus.

# ? May 7, 2019 16:19

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 17:03

Claes Oldenburger: Apr 23, 2010; Metal magician!

THC posted:

Ah, if only I’d been smart enough to have $20k cash 10 years ago

If only 19 year old me had buckled down his bootstraps and stopped eating avocado toast, he could have done it!

# ? May 7, 2019 16:20

leftist heap: Feb 28, 2013; Fun Shoe

Baronjutter posted:

In hindsight I probably should have bought when we could have scraped together enough of a downpayment and just barely had the income to afford a 250k or so condo in a 70's ish wood frame building. It would have gone up modestly in value, been in the neighbourhood we want, but most importantly we would have felt way more secure in our housing situation.

But 7-10 years ago we didn't 100% know where our careers would take us. Kids were still in the cards, moving cities was still in the cards, and both of us were working ok-paying but temporary jobs so it felt extremely risky to buy when it would have pushed our finances to the absolute limits.

What you have described is not really a secure housing situation, it is a dice roll. The rental market sucks but so does getting a $25k bill that you have literally no money to pay. You sound depressed at the housing situation in Victoria, which is natural and normal, but you did not miss out on some big opportunity throwing every available dollar into a lovely condo and you potentially dodged a bullet. All those lovely condos are still there and are at worst marginally more expensive now and give it a year and they may even be cheaper than they were ~7 years ago adjusted for inflation.

It's normal to question this poo poo and wonder What If but I think you are dramatically overstating what you missed out on.

# ? May 7, 2019 16:30

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

My boomer parents and their friends (who are all upper middle class to rich) always love to drop little bits of news about people they know around my age buying property and having kids as some sort of proof that the whole "millennials can't afford housing" thing is a myth based on entitlement and anti-boomer anti-success envy. Every time I ask about this "really hard working 30-something couple who just bought a 4 bedroom house" it turns out the couple are both working 100k a year jobs plus have rich parents who paid for their entire down-payment and educations so they started life with zero debt.

"No, you're missing the point, I'm just saying that folks your age ARE buying houses, so this whole thing about your generation being locked out isn't entirely true, you just gotta work hard"

It's really annoying because I grew up in a single-income household, my dad was a bus driver and the only reason we had a nice house is because my mom's folks gave them tons of money which they squandered on pretending to be upper middle class. Their friends and neighbours are all right at the edge of upper-middle-class to rich so of course all my folks hear about is how their friend's kids just bought their 2nd condo or how they are making tons of money renting out that ratty duplex they fixed up 5 years ago. All their peers are rich, so of course their kids are doing extremely well for them selves when their parents paid for their educations, helped them get high paying jobs, and gave them buckets of money to buy their "starter home".

Wait what.. my hour is up? Well i guess I feel a bit better. Next session I'd like to talk about how triggering I find Home Hardware's "Home owners helping home owners" jingle and how if I hear my parents complain about how the multi-million dollar mansions they're building next door are going to "jack up their property taxes" or how they're "taxed to death" I'm going to explode.

# ? May 7, 2019 16:48

Oakland Martini: Feb 14, 2008; D&D: HASBARA SQUAD
THE APARTHEID ACADEMIC

It's important that institutions never take a stance like "genocide is bad". Now get out there and crack some of my students' skulls.

When I moved to Toronto in 2013, I was 29 and had zero savings as I had been in grad school for 5 years earning $15K a year, so I had to rent. Plus I didn't want to buy anything until after I got (or didn't get) tenure. Now I'm 35 and still renting even though my household income is in the top 1%. My partner and I hate condos and while we could probably afford an SFH, it's just a stupid amount of money to spend on a house, and there's a decent chance I won't get tenure next year anyway. And if I do, I still don't see us buying anything here.

# ? May 7, 2019 16:55

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

Baronjutter posted:

Next session I'd like to talk about how triggering I find Home Hardware's "Home owners helping home owners" jingle

yeah can someone please explain to me how a home hardware retail clerk is a "home owner"

# ? May 7, 2019 17:11

incontinence 100: Dec 21, 2018; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

What kind of media are you consuming to be bombarded by these stupid ads? I haven't seen any of them. I don't watch tv or listen to radio. I have no Facebook and I report every single Instagram ad as offensive.

# ? May 7, 2019 17:13

Fuzzy Mammal: Aug 15, 2001; Lipstick Apathy

being on instagram is being on facebook hth

# ? May 7, 2019 17:43

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

RBC posted:

yeah can someone please explain to me how a home hardware retail clerk is a "home owner"

It's the weirdest fuckin' slogan for a chain of minimum wage hardware store franchises. The people who work there absolutely are not home owners, and a good chunk of their customers aren't either.

# ? May 7, 2019 17:59

HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

Thanks to the DVR I don't see a lot of ads anymore except when I'm watching hockey and I'm pretty sure I've complained about how awful "you're richer than you think" is in this thread before and update: it's still awful.

# ? May 7, 2019 19:23

Helsing: Aug 23, 2003; DON'T POST IN THE ELECTION THREAD UNLESS YOU JOE BIDEN

Much in the way that Canadian goons like to fantasize about guillotines and putting people up against the wall, normie Canadians like to larp that they are hard working over taxed property owners in the middle class.

# ? May 7, 2019 19:23

James Baud: May 24, 2015; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

As per some blog that doesn't link it's Environics source, the average net worth of Canadian households in 2017 was 450,000 ... 662,600 in Vancouver!

# ? May 7, 2019 19:27

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

James Baud posted:

As per some blog that doesn't link it's Environics source, the average net worth of Canadian households in 2017 was 450,000 ... 662,600 in Vancouver!

I would love to see the source.

e: hoodwinked by the mean

ocrumsprug fucked around with this message at 20:15 on May 7, 2019

# ? May 7, 2019 20:12

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/money-exchange-china-1.5124860

Woman offers to exchange money in China for money in Canada. Agrees to meet in parking lot without having received any deposit or having provides banking info. Brings $150k in a grocery bag. Gets in to car with dude. Dude makes call ostensibly to have someone wire the money (lol). Van full of dudes with guns then turns up and woman gets robbed. Police are flummoxed.

:laffo:

# ? May 7, 2019 20:20

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

https://popula.com/2019/04/23/turning-over-the-earth/

# ? May 8, 2019 06:38

James Baud: May 24, 2015; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

It's amazing how the people so deep into this world still fundamentally don't understand what is happening right in front of their faces while they investigate:

Fast cars and bags of cash: gangsters using B.C. luxury car market to launder dirty money

quote:

B.C. money laundering investigator and former Mountie Peter German says thousands of luxury cars worth millions of dollars are being purchased every year in B.C. by criminals as a way to launder proceeds of crime.

Many of the vehicles are then resold to exporters who ship them off shore. In a particularly galling twist, German says the criminals then turn around and apply for a rebate of the provincial sales tax.

[...]

German's report says prior to 2014, the number of PST refund applications for exported vehicles was fewer than 100 per year. In 2014 and 2015 the number jumped to over 700, before jumping exponentially in 2016 to 3,674, and rising even further to 4,452 in 2018.

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/blv6yv/organized_crime_using_bc_luxury_car_market_to/emsbsvu/ posted:

I think we can go the other way around.. assuming the PST Rebate's the full 7%, we can work backwards from that, no?

pre:

Year 	# of PST Rebates 	PST Return Value 	Value of Cars for PST Rebate
2013 	99 			$625,216 			$8,931,659
2014 	701 			$4,427,035 			$63,243,365
2015 	701 			$4,427,035 			$63,243,365
2016 	3674 			$23,478,686 			$335,409,797
2017 	3674 			$23,478,686 			$335,409,797
2018 	4452 			$28,450,492*** 			$406,435,606
Total 	13301 			$85,000,000 			$1,214,285,714

*** This person's estimated dollar value is low for 2018 (ie, it's double what he said), because a significant PST luxury tax has been levied since April 1, 2018 (10% on 57-125k, 15% on 125-150k, 20% on 150k+).

The part they're missing is that the focus here isn't laundering for the sake of laundering, the focus is evading China's currency controls.

Person A: Buys supercar for 200k, ships to China, sells for ludicrous profit at 500k CAD-equivalent
Person B: Has supercar in China, gets 280k CAD cash in north america. Flips supercar in China for 200-250k.

Person A makes 20k profit for facilitating, Person B gets a few hundred thousand out of China.

Everybody's happy.

If Person A happens to have oodles of cash from illegal sources (drugs, prostitutes, jacking 100k cash from idiots in parking lots) with which they make the car purchase, all the better - that part is indeed laundering, but these transactions would still happen today without it.

James Baud fucked around with this message at 07:02 on May 8, 2019

# ? May 8, 2019 06:50

Booourns: Jan 20, 2004; Please send a report when you see me complain about other posters and threads outside of QCS

~thanks!

lmao I guess that explains the giant cargo ship for transporting cars that's been hanging around downtown here on the island lately

# ? May 8, 2019 09:21

ARACHTION: Mar 10, 2012

Lol a couple years ago this super sleazy real estate agent in my Mandarin class offered me a ride home in his Beamer SUV and spent the ride trying to convince me to go in with him on a deal like this and make some �easy money�.

It�s funny, real-estate people are so removed from reality that they don�t even understand that there are people who don�t have 50k ready to wire for whatever the newest money laundering scheme is.

# ? May 8, 2019 13:54

James Baud: May 24, 2015; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Engineer banned from working in B.C. after Surrey tower fails to meet building code

quote:

An engineer who has worked on Canadian embassies around the world has been banned from working in B.C. after an investigation found his designs for a condo tower in Surrey were not up to building code standards.

John Bryson finished his structural designs for the building in 2013. The provincial regulator launched an investigation into Bryson's work the following year, after someone filed a complaint, and found certain aspects of Bryson's work did not meet certain requirements of the B.C. Building Code used at the time � particularly with respect to wind and seismic design.

The building has been completed and occupied, but neither the regulator nor the City of Surrey is making public which of the city's condo buildings is the one in question, saying only it is a "highrise residential tower."

Neither body has expressed any immediate fears that the building is unsafe. On Tuesday, the city said in a statement that there is "no information of any present public safety concerns," but added it will now be working with the strata corporation to determine whether there are any safety issues with the tower.

The city, citing confidentiality concerns, declined to provide a reason for withholding the address.

Bryson, whose name was on the door at his own Vancouver-based firm, resigned as a registered engineer on April 1 after signing a notice admitting to unprofessional conduct. The regulator, Engineers and Geoscientists B.C., also ordered him to pay $240,000 in penalties and costs. Bryson did not respond to request for comment.

"This is a rare but very serious offence," Ann English, CEO of EGBC, said in a disciplinary notice posted to the regulator's website. "The public deserves to have confidence that their homes are being designed to the current standard, and it's a serious matter when that trust is betrayed."

At the time Bryson was working on the Surrey tower, the 2006 B.C. Building Code was in effect, but the investigation found parts of his plan drew from a newer, national code instead.

A consent order detailing the case said some of the national guidelines were stricter than B.C.'s building code and some were looser, but it did not go into further detail. Investigators also found that the improper guidelines were used to design only certain parts of the building, not the entire structure.

The consent order also said some parts of Bryson's design were incomplete and certain mandatory calculations weren't done at all.
City 'relies on' builders' word

As for whether the building is structurally sound, the regulator's investigation only looked at whether the building was designed to the code that was current at the time. It's now up to the city and the strata corporation to determine whether the tower is safe.

In a statement, the city said it is "legally obligated" to rely on design professionals to be honest about abiding by building codes when they submit their paperwork.

"The city relies on letters of assurance provided by the professionals who designed the building, such as architects and engineers, which confirm the building had been designed and constructed according to the B.C. Building Code," said an emailed statement from R�mi Dub�, who manages the building division at the city's planning and development department.

"In this situation, where it was determined at a later time that the building was not built to the applicable code at the time, the city will be following up with the Strata Corporation to determine if there are any safety issues that would impact occupancy."

The regulator fined Bryson the maximum allowed: $25,000. He has also been ordered to pay $215,000 to cover the cost of the regulator's five-year investigation.

An online biography posted by his firm, Bryson Markulin Zickmantel (BMZ), said Bryson had more than 45 years of experience as a structural engineer. It said he worked on more than 200 highrise residential buildings across B.C., Mexico and the United States.

The site said Bryson also worked on more than 80 seismic upgrading projects and once made seismic assessments for Canadian embassies in New Delhi, Seoul and Tokyo.

There is no suggestion in the consent order that there are any issues with Bryson's other work.

Quite frankly, if the offense is basically "pulled things from the national code that weren't in the 2006 BC Building Code but might have been incorporated into the 2018 BC Code", I don't imagine the building's about to fall down, however good job whichever competitor (or junior partner in his own firm? haha) at nuking this guy into retirement... although five years from complaint to resolution.

Now, despite the condo boom in Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Moody, etc, there aren't actually that many tall buildings in Surrey at all, nevermind limiting it to recent ones, so it's basically one of these, not that I'm pointing fingers:

Name | Floors | Year
3 Civic Plaza 48 2018
Park Avenue West 41 2017
Park Avenue East 39 2017
Ultra 36 2013
Wave Tower 28 2016
Alumni Tower 36 built 2016

Oh heck, if I'd just read the actual consent order this would've been a lot easier to figure out, what with:
"as depicted in final design drawings dated March 12, 2013"

James Baud fucked around with this message at 08:27 on May 9, 2019

# ? May 9, 2019 08:17

Rime: Nov 2, 2011; by Games Forum

Probably Wave, although Alumni had massive issues with it which involved a ton of epoxy being injected into the concrete and then the plumbing failed and flooded the building a few weeks after occupancy.

# ? May 9, 2019 14:17

HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

It's definitely the Ultra, the Daily Hive commentators fished it out as well, apparently it's the only building in Surrey that the one company has done.

# ? May 9, 2019 15:10

T.C.: Feb 10, 2004; Believe.

James Baud posted:

Engineer banned from working in B.C. after Surrey tower fails to meet building code

Quite frankly, if the offense is basically "pulled things from the national code that weren't in the 2006 BC Building Code but might have been incorporated into the 2018 BC Code", I don't imagine the building's about to fall down, however good job whichever competitor (or junior partner in his own firm? haha) at nuking this guy into retirement... although five years from complaint to resolution.

That wouldn't be a big deal. It's reasonable to pull requirements from a newer code if they meet or exceed the intent of the current code. People do that on a semi regular basis What this dude did was grab less conservative stuff from a newer code while not taking other requirements that were more conservative. The implication from the finding is that he was doing it at a level that didn't meet the intent of the code. He was cherry picking code clauses, which is bullshit.

Also, his gravity system is more than 20 percent under designed, which is absolutely terrible.

# ? May 9, 2019 18:15

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

T.C. posted:

That wouldn't be a big deal. It's reasonable to pull requirements from a newer code if they meet or exceed the intent of the current code. People do that on a semi regular basis What this dude did was grab less conservative stuff from a newer code while not taking other requirements that were more conservative. The implication from the finding is that he was doing it at a level that didn't meet the intent of the code. He was cherry picking code clauses, which is bullshit.

Also, his gravity system is more than 20 percent under designed, which is absolutely terrible.

Why do engineers evade code? Ignorance? Cost cutting for clients?

# ? May 9, 2019 20:35

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

cowofwar posted:

Why do engineers evade code? Ignorance? Cost cutting for clients?

Engineers, specially older ones, can be fuckin' weird.

-The drat government doesn't know what it's talking about in these regulations! I've been an engineer for 30 years and can tell you the minimums are set way too high in order to protect against bad engineers but I'm a good engineer and know better.
-I get a huge bonus for every bit of cost cutting I can do.
-poo poo, out of habit I engineered to some older standards and I'm too lazy to redo my work so I'll just find some excuses to make it ok.
-I'm just really dumb and bad at my job but I'm a boomer so I'm never wrong and will never back down or admit I did anything wrong or didn't know something.

# ? May 9, 2019 21:31

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

Just wanted to post this hot take from a more right leaning Vancouver forum:

quote:

Okay I'll say it. A lot of money is being laundered in our economy but this spurs on the economy and keeps a lot of people employed. We are now dependent on illegal and shady money and it's way too late to do anything about it. Vancouver and Toronto risks becoming third-world hubs without real estate and development.

Let's just say the NDP wanted to get serious about tackling the issue. They would need the federal government to actually fund any initiate to tackle this. They would also need to do a legitimate re-haul of the RCMP and judicial system to at least prosecute those involved. You would need tens of billions of dollars and decades to do this.

A lot of people are happy about the influx of foreign money. Homeowners continue to reap the rewards off wisely investing, boomers actually get to retire sooner and millennials are entering the real estate, finance, development and tech sector.

I agree, what has happened is morally wrong and should have been stopped, but we are far too late to do anything here. Just like climate change, the time to act was 20+ years ago but we have to live with out decisions and adapt rather than take meaningless token steps to act.

# ? May 10, 2019 05:09

i am harry: Oct 14, 2003

"Just like climate change, the time to act was 20+ years ago but we have to live with out decisions and adapt rather than take meaningless token steps to act."

The depths at which we find human pieces of poo poo continues to amaze.

# ? May 10, 2019 05:49

Mr.Shadow: Feb 17, 2011

quote:

agree, what has happened is morally wrong and should have been stopped, but we are far too late to do anything here. Just like climate change, the time to act was 20+ years ago but we have to live with out decisions and adapt rather than take meaningless token steps to act.

Got to love conservatives and right wingers, eh its bad but it already happened so who cares. Great logic.

Whet is this right wing forum for Vancouver you speak of?

# ? May 10, 2019 06:13

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

Mr.Shadow posted:

Whet is this right wing forum for Vancouver you speak of?

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=161

Basically it's how Daily Hive gets all their development info. There are some actual development insiders there so you can get some good info, but also lots of hard right early 20-something students (a significant portion of which are Chinese) and it's fascinating/horrifying to see their take on stuff. "misher" is the worst. Right now he's trying to convince people that money laundering is equally spread out across Canada and has little to no effect on Vancouver housing prices.

# ? May 10, 2019 08:13

incontinence 100: Dec 21, 2018; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/..._term=control_2

quote:

The problem with that article is it fails to clearly articulate why / how foreign money laundering harms Canadians. Yes, there's an effect on the housing market in some cities, but the extent of the impact remain unclear.

Otherwise, the article needs to explain how a foreign national spending $250,000 in cash at McLaren Vancouver harms Canada. There's a case to be made that in some cases that foreign money actually strongly helps the Canadian economy - Not to mention the sales taxation that results from these big-ticket purchases.

Why do they need to explain the harm? Because cracking down on money laundering will cost hundreds-of-millions in Canadian tax dollars in enforcement and prosecution. Money spent on enforcement and prosecution that could go to health care, education, local policing infrastructure (property crime!), drug / mental health treatment, national defense... And we as Canadians need to understand if those enforcement expenditures are a good use of our limited funds.

the Canadian economy :qq:

# ? May 10, 2019 12:43

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

I assume that they believe that after enforcement the money launderers get to keep their ill gotten money.

Canadian Debt Bubble: it�s a victimless crime *dies of fentanyl*

# ? May 10, 2019 14:59

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

UnfortunateSexFart posted:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=161

Basically it's how Daily Hive gets all their development info. There are some actual development insiders there so you can get some good info, but also lots of hard right early 20-something students (a significant portion of which are Chinese) and it's fascinating/horrifying to see their take on stuff. "misher" is the worst. Right now he's trying to convince people that money laundering is equally spread out across Canada and has little to no effect on Vancouver housing prices.

The same dudes that run skyscraperpage also run the Victoria area right-wing/development forum Vibrant Victoria because they're victoria based. I imagine they're very very similar forum communities. Buncha smartest boy in the room market urbanists. VV of course is the star of their little "media empire" and they have a linked right-wing facebook machine as well which just constantly pumps out articles and links about how there isn't a bubble, presale condos are great, check out this insane and dumb thing a local lefty said, get scared about yet another article about homeless people existing and so on.

# ? May 10, 2019 17:10

Claes Oldenburger: Apr 23, 2010; Metal magician!

My g/f and I were talking about this last night, I'm curious how much influence forums and the like actually have on the market.

Like does the van subreddit actually have any reach and influence on the local population, even indirectly?

# ? May 10, 2019 17:41

Femtosecond: Aug 2, 2003

The big money laundering report came out yesterday.

quote:

Laundered money funded $5.3B in B.C. real estate purchases in 2018, report reveals

An estimated $5.3 billion worth of real estate transactions in B.C. last year were the result of money laundering, helping to fuel the province's skyrocketing housing prices, according to a new report.

An expert panel on dirty money in the overall real-estate market estimates that five per cent of the value of 2018 purchases were for laundering purposes, contributing to about a five per cent rise in housing prices.

The effect could be more significant in certain markets, including Metro Vancouver, according to the panel, which was commissioned by the provincial government.

Altogether, dirty money in the real estate market accounted for an estimated 72 per cent of the $7.4 billion that the experts believe was laundered in total in B.C. last year.

"Our economy should work for regular people, not criminals," said B.C. Finance Minister Carole James. "Housing should provide shelter, not a vehicle for proceeds of crime."

James said the province will be looking closely at all 29 recommendations put forward by the report, called Combating Money Laundering in B.C. Real Estate.

The report estimates that five per cent of B.C. home purchases in 2018 were made for laundering purposes, contributing to about a five per cent rise in home prices. The effect was likely higher in Metro Vancouver.

"For me, the most important piece of action is transparency � shining that light, taking away that opportunity to hide," she said.

The panel was chaired by criminal law expert Maureen Maloney.

Its report was one of two released Thursday that examine the influence of money laundering in B.C.'s real estate market. Both paint an alarming picture of how criminals are using homes to clean their cash.

Former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German produced the second report, named Dirty Money Part 2, which outlines some of the red flags that signal when illegal money is behind a real-estate purchase � including unfinanced purchases, private lending, unusual interest rates and purchases by homemakers and students, for example.

Both documents identify numerous gaps in provincial and federal systems for keeping track of purchases and reporting suspicious transactions.

The reports are just the latest entries in B.C.'s ongoing investigation into how proceeds of crime are being cleaned in this province.

Earlier this week, German released findings on money laundering in the luxury vehicle sector, information that Attorney General David Eby called "incredibly disturbing."

A year ago, German issued his first report, Dirty Money, detailing extensive links between money laundering and B.C. casinos.

Both reports identify numerous gaps in regulatory systems at both the federal and provincial levels that have allowed money laundering to flourish in real-estate transactions. Here are just a few:

Mortgage brokers, lawyers and homebuilders aren't required to report suspicious transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC).

There's little flow of information between FINTRAC and law enforcement agencies.

B.C.'s Land Title and Survey Authority collects data in a haphazard way that makes it difficult to analyze trends. The database includes multiple spellings for every bank, along with homeowners who describe their occupations as things like "super dad" or "[domestic diva."

Police agencies in B.C. have come to depend heavily on the civil forfeiture system to deal with money laundering and proceeds of crime cases, rather than using criminal laws that were designed to dismantle criminal organizations.

The expert panel applauded some of the actions already underway in B.C., including a beneficial ownership registry that will make information about property owners publicly available. But it also suggested ways to close those gaps, including:

Regulating real estate developers through a licensing system.

Replacing the Mortgage Broker Act.

Improving data sharing between agencies that deal with money laundering.

Creating a new financial investigations unit at the B.C. Ministry of Finance.

Making more professionals accountable to FINTRAC.

The panel also suggests a drastic new measure that would build upon B.C.'s criminal and civil forfeiture system, known as unexplained wealth orders. This would allow the government to confiscate property when there is no evident legitimate source for the funds to purchase it � even if there is no evidence of criminal activity.

Unbelievable yesterday to see the YIMBY set on twitter unable to resist trying to spin this as like, "ok so there's laundering everywhere tho right? this is a nothing burger." How on earth do you see this news and feel the urge to have to downplay it and try to change the channel?

Femtosecond fucked around with this message at 17:45 on May 10, 2019

# ? May 10, 2019 17:42

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Femtosecond posted:

The big money laundering report came out yesterday.

Unbelievable yesterday to see the YIMBY set on twitter unable to resist trying to spin this as like, "ok so there's laundering everywhere tho right? this is a nothing burger." How on earth do you see this news and feel the urge to have to downplay it and try to change the channel?

Because they know the only thing funding all those totally kewl looking glass condo towers they jerk off to every night is foreign money laundering. A stall in construction and speculation leading to lower costs leading to increases in affordability across the board would also prove their supply-side economics wrong.

Honestly, a lot of YIMBY's I've known are just big fans of buildings and construction. They're like train enthusiasts pushing as hard as they can for more rail-based transport in the region, sure they can come up with a lot of good reasons and sometimes they're right, but their core motivation is just a love of trains and a desire to see more of them around. A ton of YIMBY's just love big shiny new buildings and modern architecture. They love the marketing and first-shovel ceremonies and keep track of every new building going up and love to gush online about how they feel about the architecture and how this latest project just might end up being the coolest new building in the city.

That's their core motivation, just a love of new big tall buildings, everything else becomes a rationalization.

Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 17:57 on May 10, 2019

# ? May 10, 2019 17:53

Juul-Whip: Mar 10, 2008

Femtosecond posted:

The big money laundering report came out yesterday.

Unbelievable yesterday to see the YIMBY set on twitter unable to resist trying to spin this as like, "ok so there's laundering everywhere tho right? this is a nothing burger." How on earth do you see this news and feel the urge to have to downplay it and try to change the channel?

that's late capitalism for you. everyone knows whats up so theres not much advantage to be gained by pretending to care about ethics or morals or the rule of law anymore. mask off time baby.

Juul-Whip fucked around with this message at 18:34 on May 10, 2019

# ? May 10, 2019 18:27

Mandibular Fiasco: Oct 14, 2012

Claes Oldenburger posted:

Like does the van subreddit actually have any reach and influence on the local population, even indirectly?

No. I did the experiment - ignored Reddit for six months. And lo, the world continued to turn on its axis!

# ? May 10, 2019 18:47

ocrumsprug: Sep 23, 2010; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Was it 2017 when the Globe and Mail made it public what was going on? How does obvious crime like this continue AFTER it is public knowledge?

# ? May 10, 2019 18:48

James Baud: May 24, 2015; by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Claes Oldenburger posted:

My g/f and I were talking about this last night, I'm curious how much influence forums and the like actually have on the market.

Like does the van subreddit actually have any reach and influence on the local population, even indirectly?

Vancouver subreddit stories absolutely do. Local media (papers, radio, tv news) pick up all kinds of stories from Reddit and report a day or two later (occasionally same day). I suspect this applies to all major cities.

Reddit comments, though? Maybe factbombs / background info that can be properly confirmed or re-sourced, but not random idiocy/flames. Nobody's "influencing" anybody by arguing political points in the comments. Doing your own muckracking and posting stories? Quite possibly a different story.

Journalists have long trolled Twitter for topics too, which for the past ten years has even resulted in the dreaded "Here's how people on Twitter are reacting!" stories. Possibly these are dying lately because everyone is realizing that Twitter is toxic and full of fake accounts on everything vaguely controversial, but maybe I'm better at avoiding them.

James Baud fucked around with this message at 18:56 on May 10, 2019

# ? May 10, 2019 18:53

Baronjutter: Dec 31, 2007; "Tiny Trains"

Claes Oldenburger posted:

My g/f and I were talking about this last night, I'm curious how much influence forums and the like actually have on the market.

Like does the van subreddit actually have any reach and influence on the local population, even indirectly?

I think those of us in the Canpol threads know we're just shouting into the void and shootin' the poo poo about various issues. But a lot of more right-wing political forums/reddits honestly think they're evidence of some silent majority.

Case in point, Victoria's right wing forums. During the city elections they had poll after poll on their site and facebook for the election, which kept showing all the right wing candidates (who were all raving nimby's too, ironic) coming out with massive leads. They declared that reddit, facebook, and their own website represented a true cross-section of Victoria and began celebrating the end of the socialist SJW menace. They were posting big theories on how it's a clear sign that their activism and outreach has changed people's minds, educated the voters on the dangers of bike lane socialism, and finally the silent centrist majority of the city were going to be heard and restore common sense to the city.

They were in absolute shock and despair, with many seriously worrying there was some sort of election-rigging going on, when the election was an absolute sweep for the left wing candidates.

# ? May 10, 2019 18:55

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 3, 2024 17:03

leftist heap: Feb 28, 2013; Fun Shoe

Baronjutter posted:

I think those of us in the Canpol threads know we're just shouting into the void and shootin' the poo poo about various issues. But a lot of more right-wing political forums/reddits honestly think they're evidence of some silent majority.

Case in point, Victoria's right wing forums. During the city elections they had poll after poll on their site and facebook for the election, which kept showing all the right wing candidates (who were all raving nimby's too, ironic) coming out with massive leads. They declared that reddit, facebook, and their own website represented a true cross-section of Victoria and began celebrating the end of the socialist SJW menace. They were posting big theories on how it's a clear sign that their activism and outreach has changed people's minds, educated the voters on the dangers of bike lane socialism, and finally the silent centrist majority of the city were going to be heard and restore common sense to the city.

They were in absolute shock and despair, with many seriously worrying there was some sort of election-rigging going on, when the election was an absolute sweep for the left wing candidates.

They were all so broke brained when Helps won lol.

# ? May 10, 2019 19:09

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

«‹›1519 »