Vancouver ILXors

ya i love butchart gardens

probably time to post some housing related news

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-14/vancouver-tax-on-empty-homes-to-target-near-zero-rental-supply

will be intriguing to see the results. this step by the city makes a lot more sense to me than the provincial liberals (aka tories) foreign buyers' tax.

altho as the article points out determining vacant homes isn't all that easy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-vacant-home-tax-1.3761496

Under the mayors proposal, all Vancouver homeowners will be required to declare their principal residence (or tenancy)

[...]

If audited, owners will have to prove that the home was a principal residence for the owner, a tenant or a licensee.

Proof of primary residency could include a B.C. driver's licence or BCID, a completed Home Owner Grant, a tenancy agreement or similar documentation.

If the owner is unable to prove the home was a principal residence for a minimum number of days in the previous year (to be determined by staff through consultation this fall), the tax will apply.

If a declaration is not made, legislation allows for owners to automatically be charged the empty homes tax.

i can fathom some ways around that already but it's a start

i tend to keep it quiet in my leftist social circles but i think gregor is a pretty dece mayor

i think so

Robertson said if the tax is collected on just five per cent of known empty homes, it would generate an estimated $2 million, which would go toward cost recovery and affordable housing.

This seems to be completely missing the point, which is that the vacancy rate is so abysmally low that something needs to be done to encourage people to actually rent their suites. Instead of just leave them empty until their value escalates to a point where they can cash in on their investment. Robertson makes this seem like it's just about collecting (a rather small) amount of money that will just be added to the budget of the Vancouver Housing Authority which itself has done practically nothing to deal with homelessness and the absence of housing for people with lower incomes.

Other cities have imposed a mandatory tax/charge on ALL homeowners which you then get back as an exemption when you file your property tax. I don't see them doing anything like that. Of course there's no real details yet. I'm not impressed.

if it is a 2% tax then i think it should have some effect on people leaving suites empty.

when thinking about the issues that matter to me, such as housing, it's really deflating to think that the bc libs are probably going to win again next year :/ john horgan was at my place of work today and i and a couple of colleagues walked past him in a corridor, i was the only one who recognized him, lol

We don't know what the % will be. We don't know how they are going to collect it, other than it is to be self-reported. Don't know how it's going to be administered or how much that will cost. The mayor apparently sees benefits even if 95% of vacant home-owners ignore it completely.

They don't seem to have done much work around this.

they don't expect 95% to ignore it though:

Under the mayors proposal, all Vancouver homeowners will be required to declare their principal residence (or tenancy)

my main criticism would be that this should've been done a long time ago

His calculation of $2,000,000 doesn't make sense if it's 2% anyway. They say there's approx 10,000 vacant (it's actually way higher but let's forget that for now). Say 500 empty condo owners confess and the average value of a condo is $500,000. Then for the city to make $2million the tax would be 0.8% - $4,000/year. That's not particularly prohibitive when the condo is increasing in value by 10% a year.

Under the mayors proposal, all Vancouver homeowners will be required to declare their principal residence (or tenancy)

This doesn't mean anything. All rental units in the city are not the homeowners principal residence. The city does not keep a registry of renters, or of rental properties. So what is this supposed to achieve?

Sorry, I see on the CBC article I was reading is says "if audited" you basically have to produce docs proving someone lives there. Again, I have no faith in them actually having the power to enforce this. The Airbnb situation demonstrates they are unable to enforce city bylaws, even when investigated or audited. A neighbouring property here has had three notices telling it to immediately cease short-term rentals but still they continue. This was the result of dozens of neighbour calls and the fire dept declaring it unsafe. To date the city has never busted anyone for Airbnb, yet the easiest way they could return thousands of former-rental suites to the market would be to do a few high-profile busts, set up a snitch-line and have the mayor go to the media to remind everyone it's against city bylaws. They do it for a hosepipe ban, why not for short-term rentals?

just reading kathy tomlinson's ama and i think we're on the right path (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/52y9iv/i_am_kathy_tomlinson_the_globe_and_mail_reporter/)

it's a slow process (sounding like gillis right now) on account of our own politicians but one that everyone needs to be vocal about until the end goal is met

i think a lot of this is symbolic and signalling to foreign homebuyers that vancouverites will not accept this, and it seems to be working, but i agree that more regulation is required and better options exist

Average rent for one bedroom is now $2090 in Vancouver.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3609431/new-record-2090-a-month-is-average-cost-of-one-bedroom-rental-in-vancouver/

I imagine this will result in many people jumping ship to Kelowna, Kamloops or other places where rent is less insane. I'm lucky to live in a place that isn't expensive (been here six years) but no way in hell is Van worth that much per month.

yeah my wife and i pay $1215 in mount pleasant for a one-bedroom with parking space and feel lucky. i was walking by a neighboring, more rundown, apartment building yesterday, and they had a smaller suite than ours available for $1500.

if we ever get renovicted we're out of here. probably to at least as expensive toronto, but i will begrudge the expense a little less to live in more of a metropolis tbh

Ah yeah that's a good arrangement, Jim. Do you know or does anyone know what kinds of political action or movements have been set up to counter renovictions, etc.?

there seems to be an incipient group! i have been thinking of joining/getting involved with but haven't looked into it yet

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/launch-vancouver-tenants-union-1.4092386

this demand of theirs seems key to me:

"The union's goals include advocating for rental control that is tied to units, meaning rents wouldn't increase when people leave."

Thanks for the link Jim, definitely interested in that movement.

That part is key and rarely followed - I know for a fact that other people in my building pay far more rent than me and as soon as I leave, my rent will be higher than theirs.

the apartment building we lived in before the one we live in now is directly next door. it is a real dump. anyway we were paying $975 or something when we moved there 4 and a bit years ago. since we left I've noticed that our old suite (which is in the front of the building) has been vacated since by the tenants that came after us.

i checked craigslist both then, and also when we were moving out to see how much they were going to charge.

the rent went like this: us - $1000 (when we left), next tenants $1200, next tenants $1500. the place had black mould and mice.

I have been to a few Tenants Union meetings and know a few of the principles, who are mostly DTES activists. That is a good and bad thing about it. Good, because they are very passionate and know their stuff but bad because they focus on DTES problems which are different from elsewhere. Anyway, it's a new thing so not sure how it will go. Made a lot of progress in the three months it's been going for. They got invited to city hall like 2 weeks after the first big public meeting (which they declined lol).

Best thing right now would be to write to the new housing minister Selina Robinson and your local NDP MLA telling them to change the Residential Tenancy Act to restore security of tenure as per Declaration of Human Rights imo. ie. no no-fault evictions - renovictions, short-term leases, saying your daughter needs the suite and so on. It's the ease of displacing people that is a big part of this.

thanks for the info, everything. i think i will get involved/contact ndp pols

BTW Selina Robinson is a wonderful person who I briefly worked with at a big non-profit right before she was elected first time. She is a total dynamo and basically puts everyone else to shame with her energy and intelligence. I could list of the stuff i know about her but to summarize, there's probably no-one else in the province who I'd rather to see in that job. I only hope she can get stuff done and isn't hindered by something political.

https://www.straight.com/news/948346/anti-racism-rally-planned-vancouver-protest-opponents-muslims-and-immigration

come get punched by sons of odin with me this saturday

i am down

ok i've only lived here a week and granted it is mid-August but, this city is real nice imo... at least second best city in canada

welcome flopson :)

thx Ross :)

hello flopson :)

hi jim :)

went to nine dishes (new location in richmond near bridgeport skytrain station). they've put the price of tsingtao up to $3.50 from $2 and the premises is a completely different vibe to the old hole in the wall on kingsway - kind of looks like a cross between an earls and a nightclub, with a huge chandelier dangling from the ceiling - but it's still great.

also have been getting outdoors more lately (yesterday was amazing weather), going to the north shore and exploring creeks and going to whytecliff park and seeing some seals. trying my best to stave off hating vancouver as the winter descends upon us.

fwiw i'm still lovin' vancouver

have u been to Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle in aberdeen centre? the only place i've eaten in richmond so far but it's soooo good

I've heard good things about that place but i don't eat meat and I've been told that, somewhat unsurprisingly, id be SOL if i tried to eat there. I'm going to try and get out to the burbs more often for food tho for sure.

oh ya don't go, in that case

green party wants to ban foreign real estate ownership

http://theprovince.com/news/bc-politics/mike-smyth-ban-foreign-real-estate-purchases-weaver-says

gregor's not running for mayor in october

Not surprising. What a terrible failure this last decade has been for Vancouver. Who knows what's next but more of this is not what's needed.

id imagine, especially if vision don't field a strong candidate, it will be NPA sadly

i.e. vision without the antiperspirant and disinterested in cycling infrastructure

Can't see NPA finding more than three or four candidates that anyone would vote for. I think council will resemble the school board - three Greens, two or three from each of NPA and Vision and one or two independents. Which would be perfectly healthy and better than now. I know for sure Jean Swanson is running as an independent and she's a shoo-in. Adriane Carr for Mayor.

i really don't see more greens than NPA or Vision

Well it just happened with the school board. Wouldn't be surprised to see Janet Frazer move from school board to council. And then they have Pete Fry and Cleta Brown who are both popular candidates. And Adriane Carr, the most popular councilor of all, who could quite easily win mayor right now.

school board trustees were voted for at the by-election which had a dismally low turnout.

jean swanson got more votes than pete fry in that same by-election, he's hardly the most robust candidate.

really don't imagine greens will gain any extra seats on the council to be honest.

if, similarly to the by-election, there is vision, a copesque independent like jean swanson - maybe actually just Jean Swanson - one city morons, some weed buffoons, and greens then the "progressive" vote will be split to hell again

Doesn't matter though because we get 9 votes and they all count. What is needed is some co-operation between Greens, independents, One City and COPE to not swamp the progressive side with too many candidates. Like, we only need 9 or 10 candidates in total from that side. Let Vision and NPA split the right wing. COPE are notorious for fucking this up but they are so weak now they may be sensible for a change.

Vision Vancouver have closed their offices and have no employees anymore. They'll blow their war-chest on this last election, scrape a few candidates and that'll be it for them.