Several hundred people rallied in Vancouver Sunday (May 24) to protest the high cost of housing in the city, which many fear will drive talented young people out of the city.
Incomes have become increasingly decoupled from Vancouver home prices, with single detached homes leading the increase. The most recent statistics from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver show the benchmark price for a detached house on Vancouver’s west side is $2.4 million, and $1.04 million in East Vancouver. Meanwhile, median incomes in Vancouver lag other major Canadian cities.
Eveline Xia, a Vancouver resident who created the popular #donthave1million Twitter hashtag, called for several policy changes, including changing B.C.’s current property transfer tax to benefit first-time homeowners and introducing a speculation tax to curb investor activity. She also called on government to start collecting data on foreign ownership, something it currently does not do.
Global wealth has flowed into Vancouver real estate over the past several years, a phenomenon that has also occurred in cities like London and New York. According to real estate insiders, the trend of wealthy people from abroad buying real estate in Metro Vancouver as a safe investment has become an important element in the real estate industry here.
Xia said the issue is not about “the foreigness of the people, but the foreigness of the money.”
“We’re smart enough to understand that the foreign investment that is coming today, that may be coming predominantly from China this year could turn and switch and come from the U.S. next year,” she said, adding local people can't compete with the millionaires and billionaires of the world.
“This is about a broken system that treats homes like the stock market, and completely removes people and the community from the equation.”
On May 22, condo marketer Bob Rennie joined Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson in calling for a tax on speculative real estate activity.
Christy Clark has rejected taxing foreign buyers, saying that move could cause house prices in Vancouver to drop.
A recent Vancity report warned the city will start losing talented young workers if the housing disconnect continues. Miguel A Roza, a recent University of British Columbia grad, said he feels torn between wanting to stay in Vancouver and the hard reality of finding a job that pays the rent.
“Let’s say the salaries were higher, to make staying in Vancouver more reasonable, it’s still tough,” A Roza said. “The lack of opportunities, plus housing being so expensive, makes it very difficult to be here.”
@jenstden
