From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   The Globe and Mail - June 6, 2015   
      
   To B.C. politicians: Get a grip on Vancouver's housing market   
      
      
   A sense that wealthy foreign investors are driving up prices - and what to do   
   about that - so far proves to be a hot potato   
      
   There is not an issue facing Metro Vancouver more multifaceted and complex   
   than the cost of housing, a fact vividly illustrated by the current debate   
   enveloping the topic here.   
      
   Recently, the mayor of Vancouver appealed to the province to introduce tax   
   measures aimed at cooling off a red-hot real estate market, which has become   
   increasingly out of reach for many prospective first-time home buyers.   
      
   Of course, this situation has been brewing for years. So why the overture to   
   Premier Christy Clark now?   
      
   Likely because it has dawned on Mayor Gregor Robertson that the cost of   
   housing is becoming a damaging and divisive political issue.  Anger over the   
   perception that rich foreigners are buying up the city and driving prices   
   skyward is palpable.  This    
   angst has been simmering for some time, but the mayor's office has now   
   realized the mood is getting hostile.    
      
   Some have suggested there is a racist undertone to some of the discussion.  I   
   think it's more accurate to say there is resentment being directed at a   
   specific cultural group - in this case, wealthy Chinese - believed to be   
   creating the affordability    
   problem.   
      
   This is not good on any level.   
      
   There has been frustration directed at the mayor, and council, over the fact   
   they have been reluctant to do anything to try to remedy the situation.  Among   
   those most upset are young, urban professionals who can't afford to live in   
   the city in which they    
   work.  These are Mr. Robertson's people; they form a key demographic of his   
   Vision Vancouver party's network of supporters. (It also has not helped that   
   the mayor has been characterized as a friend of the development community.)   
      
   Finally spurred to action by an anguish that is now tangible, Mr. Robertson   
   sent his appeal to Ms. Clark for tax measures that would punish speculators   
   and foreign investors who are buying up luxury property in which they have no   
   intention of living.   
      
   It took all of one day for the Premier to dismiss the mayor's overture.  In   
   doing so, she trotted out a questionable analysis done by the finance   
   department that allegedly showed how damaging these types of measures would be   
   to the value of homes in the    
   region . (This proposition is ridiculous.  Specific tax measures on foreign   
   investors buying luxury properties as well as some type of surcharge on   
   property speculators would have little deleterious impact on the equity of a   
   person's home in Vancouver,    
   trust me).   
      
   Ms. Clark also said that the foreign investors account for only 5 per cent of   
   purchasers in the region and, consequently, could not be blamed for creating   
   the affordability problem that currently exists.   
      
   In the same way that the cost of housing in his city represents a serious   
   political problem for Mr. Robertson, any recommendations to address the issue   
   that involve messing with free-market principles are a problem for the leader   
   of the province's    
   purported free-enterprise party.  Real estate is a major economic driver in   
   the province.  Many of the B.C. Liberal Party's biggest financial supporters   
   would be people and organizations that would resist any measures to curb real   
   estate investment. Ms.    
   Clark understands this instinctively.   
      
   Having said that, this is not an issue that is going away any time soon.    
   While Ms. Clark may not want to tinker with free-market principles, she should   
   at least be backing the mayor's call to give municipalities more powers to   
   track who, precisely, is    
   driving the insanity in the housing market that we are witnessing.  If it's   
   not Asian buyers, then our political leaders should be trying to dispel that   
   myth as quickly as they can, if for no other reason than to let some air out   
   of the growing antipathy    
   being directed at this community.   
      
   That said, I remain skeptical of the notion foreign buyers have little to do   
   with what we are seeing today.  For more than a decade now, Vancouver has   
   attracted tens of thousands of rich immigrants under various federal programs   
   tied to wealth levels,    
   most of whom have been Chinese.  As Ian Young of the South China Morning Post   
   has written, housing unaffordability in the city is up 100 per cent since   
   2005.  Is the massive influx of wealthy Asian immigrant investors and the   
   paralleled rise in the value    
   of real estate just a coincidence?   
      
   There is much we need to learn about what is going on in the Metro Vancouver   
   housing market and the sooner we get the facts the better.    
      
   Meantime, this is a political issue that will continue to fester and possibly   
   get much, much worse.   
   ________________________________   
      
   Look at the BS reply from Christy Clark on the issue:   
      
   http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/christy-clark-vs-   
   regor-robertson-on-solving-high-condo-costs-1.3103136   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)