John Hutchinson
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Affordable housing is the most important issue
I think the number one issue is affordable housing. With huge Chinese demand, large numbers of Chinese people with lots of money. Supply is not keeping up with this massive demand. So there is a shift in the demand curve to the right. With high demand at every price level. So with high demand, limited supply, price jumps sky high. Foreign investment and Chinese demand here locally driving price of housing out of reach for lots of people. So that this generation of young people will have to move to Prince George or Chilliwack in order to afford a house. This issue is not being addressed by the current mayors or council members except for one. Are big buck developers being given priority here in North Van city so that high density becomes too high. They should restrict 25 tower buildings to the Lonsdale corridor.With increasing population high density is inevitable but, it should be done at a reasonable pace. So in conclusion growth with reason.
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10 comments:
I agree the need for affordability is necessary to discuss. It is based on market positions when it is run by an independant private firm.
So does this mean the city should be getting into the landlord business?
Vancouver touched lightly on that bandwagon look where it took them...
Yes there are ways to building and affording lower income construction, the problem as in Vancouver's faux pas came in the pre-construction cost phase. If the building already exists then rental can be co-op, rent to own, subsidized, or several other programs. But who is willing to put $30 million on the table for construction with a less than 10% ROI unless it is the government?
Come up with solutions to the problem and we will all be happy.
Pine over the possibility and never offer an idea to resolve it and no one wants to hear it as it has no real outcomes...
It is not the Chinese that are buying up the City of North Vancouver, the City is being bought up by the Iranians.
Better be careful about saying that though, the Iranians have a lot of support from those within the power places
I love to watch local politicians and their syncophants huff and puff about the cost of housing, as if they can realistically do anything about it.
The real estate market is a world market. Money for residential real estates moves internationally to desirable locations.
Vancouver, on a world - not a local scale, is relatively inexpensive when compared to the really high per square foot cost of selected international real estate.
The local town council isn't going to be able to stop the tsunami. Sure they can rezone to allow some carriage houses, a co-op or two, to throw a bone to the affordable housing crowd but it's a drop in the bucket.
Get over yourselves, it's not 1960 and the local politicos don't have the power to stop it. The overall market will move in a world ebb and flow and so will our real estate prices.
Right on. Time has moved on and so has the middle class Euro-British population.
Only the wealthy for North Vancouver who cares where they come from just as long as their pockets are stuffed with cash.
Bring the big bucks on and in.
yay, yay, yay,yay
...and you propose a local council to stop it by....? Get real.
Anon 8:30. Cynicism doesn't really matter. It's not about if we like it. It's just what it is.
Pretending that we have the power to stop it? Remember King Canute.
$500,000.00 is the new affordable for the City of North Vancouver, like it or lump it.
Thank Andrew Saxton and the Canadian Federal Immigration Department for this new figure as it has nothing to do with local politicians.
Prince George and Chilliwack are full of East Indians.
Vancouver is oriental and the North Shore is
turning Farsi. These may Venice people but most of
them do not share well and they are very tribally
orientated even though they may publicly deny it.
Try Boston Bar or somwhere with a five hour commute
to the lower mainland. Rents on the North Shore have
gone through the roof. The rich should pay because they
can afford it. If they can't afford to help out the they're
not rich.
Who new the North Shore is such a hotbed for racism?
Also, can somebody explain to me how a municipal government is going to be able to anything substantial about the affordability of housing? They have a hard enough time managing our money as it is, the last thing I want to see is for them to start playing landlord/property manager. Housing costs are based on supply and demand. Simple as that. Municipal government has no control over that. The only thing municipal government can do is control zoning to make it easier for legal suites, duplexes and carriage houses. Until the upper levels of government start subsidizing the construction of rental housing, it will be up to individual homeowners who want to add a suite (of some description) to supply our much needed rental stock.
I guess it's how you articulate it.
You'd have to be willfully blind not to notice the change in country of origin demographics on the lower mainland including the n. shore.
Doesn't make you racist to acknowledge that fact.
Yes, you're quite right that our real estate prices are dictated by world markets and international buyers and local gov't has precious little influence over that market.
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