
College Kids Are Living Like Kings in Vancouver’s Empty Mansions - petethomas
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-04-16/college-kids-are-living-like-kings-in-vancouver-s-empty-mansions
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forkLding
I saw a similar article like this last month or so.

This is a more realistic article on the subject:
[https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2019/03/11/renting-
luxury...](https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2019/03/11/renting-luxury-
mansion-vancouver-bc/)

Note that I've tried figuring out where to rent these rooms and reaching out
but so far have remained fruitless.

~~~
avip
When I was renting in Van, 90% of landlords hanged-up immediately after asking
how many kids I have. The idea they would lease to a bunch of random doped
teens is utterly ridiculous.

[E: that was before EHT]

~~~
ravenstine
I dunno, it seems that these days the accepted way to make money is by nickel
and dimeing poor people. How are they supposed to make bank on a family w/
kids that won't constantly owe extra due to delinquent payments? Just a
theory, seeing as how the poor and the financially-irresponsible seem to be
the best customers of banks and creditors. Might as well be the same for
renters.

~~~
ralusek
Nickel and dimeing poor people and collecting delinquent payments is
definitely not something that most landlords want to pursue as a business
model. Morality aside, that is a very labor intensive business to be in, and
relies on economies of scale to balance out those without the ability to
follow through on payments.

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thorwasdfasdf
On the one hand, it looks like the policy is working and having the desired
effect of reducing rent prices and sale prices. But, this is just a short term
effect that brings prices closer to their underlying cost.

But, one of the bigger problems we're facing is the underlying cost of
building homes. Humanity hasn't made much progress in this regard for the last
100 years: inflation adjust, homes per sq foot still sell for about the same
amount. if we're going to make progress on this, we really need to look at
those underlying costs and start addressing them. Jumping from one band-aid to
another isn't going change things significantly in the long term.

~~~
powera
First, 80% of the cost of housing in the Bay Area is location. Second, many
houses from 100 years ago didn't have features like electricity and indoor
plumbing. Third, we're not going to invent magical 3D printers that make
houses out of thin-air.

~~~
closeparen
Watch a planning meeting sometime. One of the typical community demands is to
use onsite union carpenters vs. brining in prefab components from assembly
lines elsewhere. Like so many things about Bay Area housing, we actually do
have the capabilities, we’re just throwing up legal roadblocks to their use.

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Tiktaalik
Realtors and condo marketers were for years spreading misinformation and
downplaying the role that foreign capital was playing in rising land values,
in hopes of keeping the good times rolling.

No one can credibly discount those impacts now.

~~~
moltar
Well they do have stats and the stats say that foreign buyers account for
about 3%.

~~~
dgudkov
I suspect it's only those who are explicitly foreign. Many real estate deals
are made through Canada-registered corporations behind which there can be
anybody - Canada doesn't track real beneficiaries. The situation has become so
dire, that the federal government will spend C$200mln in the next 5 years to
fight money laundering in the country, and first of all - in real estate.

~~~
dblohm7
BC is going to start tracking this. It was just unveiled last week.

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DINKDINK
ITT, people who think

\- economic free lunches exist

\- any capital after their capital came to an area is illegitimate

\- markets don't price in risk or volatility

\- policy doesn't affect the agent on the margin, decreases costs to his
marginal 'neighbors': before a 3% vacancy tax, low consumer surplus buyers
could barely afford a house, after the vacancy tax there are some low-
consumer-surplus buyers who can no longer afford housing, the two groups who
can absorb that depressed purchasing are high-consumer-surplus buyers (read
premium buyers) and buyers who had negative consumer surplus who are now low
surplus buyers. The majority of that supply gets absorbed by high-consumer-
surplus buyers. This is the result of pretty much every economic
interventionist policy in so called progressive cities. It's the reason why
those cities gentrify: only high-consumer-surplus buyers can survive the
policy changes.

Play a game: a casino offers you entry but only returns 97% of your original
capital. The only people who can profitably play games in the casino are the
most intense and wealthy speculators (in the non pejorative).

~~~
sonnyblarney
Your description of buyers fails to reflect the fact that the high-surplus
types are foreign, the rest are local.

There is an easy solution: tax foreign ownership at a significant rate.

This is even justifiable: why do foreign land-owners have the privilege to own
land in Canada? We have to maintain laws, secure it, pay for externalized
maintenance (the road out front to start), the water, provide the possibility
for electricity even if it's not used and all the civic infrastructure.

Non-resident land ownership should be taxed at 3% of the value of the land per
year, or banned outright.

There's almost no advantage in a nation selling of it's land as an export.

Another alternative would be only to allow residential 'surplus' to be sold.
One trick to implement this might be to allow foreigners to buy flats, but not
homes. Not a very perfect trick but it would 'kind of work': it's possible to
build a lot of empty buildings in the middle of nowhere as investments.
Allowing only a % of homes in an are to be foreign owned would be another
opportunity.

~~~
DINKDINK
>tax foreign ownership at a significant rate

If these "foreigners" should be taxed now, why shouldn't you be taxed also?
because at some point in the past you were a "foreigner" relative to where you
are now.

>We have to maintain laws, secure it, pay for externalized maintenance (the
road out front to start), the water, provide ....

You're describing....property taxes, which still exist. If anything, lower
population density reduces demand for those services, so their property taxes
should be lower.

Listen if you hate foreigners, think there's an Asian "plague", and get behind
the trope that 'foreigners are ruining my neighborhood, country, city' just
say it. But before you do, you might do well to read some history such as the
Chinese Exclusion Act [1] and it's racist legacy despite being legitimized at
the time by "protecting American labor"

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act)

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ricardobeat
This is the 5th or 6th time this story pops up here, and it always features
"The Castle".

To me that doesn't even look like a mansion, more like a pastiche, the
exterior / materials look very cheap.

------
ible
As far as I can tell most mansions are being rented out to high income locals,
not to groups of college kids.

I toured a few of these in the last couple months and the nice ones had a
parade of high income couples going through who would be perfectly happy to
rent a $6,000,000 house for $5000 per month.

All the ones I saw explicitly disallowed subletting/group tenancies in the
rental agreements.

~~~
charlesdm
If you can rent a $6m mansion for $5,000 per month, you're getting a steal. In
that case (and especially since this tax policy is pushing prices down
further) it makes zero sense to buy.

~~~
ible
I'm still not sure I made the right decision turning them down. On the one
hand spending $5000 per month on rent feels crazy in Vancouver. On the other
hand it is an incredible deal.

In the end what kept me from renting it is the likelihood of needing to move
in a year or so. I prefer a bit more stability for my kids.

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everyone
$1000 is still a helluva-lot for a room imo.. Also sharing with 13 other
people, sounds like a nightmare.

~~~
barkingcat
In Vancouver $1000 gets you a studio basement den. A duplex 1 bedroom is like
$1800

From the article:

"nine-bedroom home, dubbed “The Castle” by the 14 students who share the
property, is apparently owned by an Afghani pop artist, according to Boodhoo."

A 9 bedroom house - just imagine the size of that. Not a nightmare, but
something like Tony Stark lifestyle.

Edit

Oh I misread - a room is $1000. In that case it's not that much of a great
deal. At first I thought it was $1000 for the whole building which would put
it in "super cheap pricing" territory

~~~
msie
At least with your own apartment you don't share the kitchen or bathroom.

~~~
barkingcat
for a 9 room, there's probably at least 2 kitchens and 4-6 bathrooms.

From the way the picture looks, it's a whole house.

In Toronto, we have these rooming houses that are teeny tiny 24 people
rooming, about 50-100 square foot each, in a space that has 1 shared kitchen
and half a bathroom (a washroom with toilet + a separate unconnected closet
that serves as a shower, so you can't go potty and take a shower in one space)
and they charge $800-1000 per person.

~~~
msie
Despite that you know there will always be some conflict.

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droithomme
> apparently owned by an Afghani pop artist

Afghani pop artists who own mansions in Vancouver is a really small category.

~~~
pesfandiar
Interesting tangent: the correct demonyms are either Afghan or Afghanistani.
Afghani is their currency.

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kyleblarson
God those houses are hideous.

~~~
anitil
They remind me of the 'McMansion Hell' page -
[http://mcmansionhell.com/](http://mcmansionhell.com/)

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wpdev_63
Now they just need to implement this tax in every city.

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s09dfhks
>Sun doesn’t think Vancouver’s market is going to come back to its highs,
especially at the top end. “Why would they come here and pay all that tax and
feel like a criminal?”

Please let this happen in the SF Bay area

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msie
Oh Bloomberg you make it sound like everyone is doing it. Not.

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PunksATawnyFill
Those taxes are obscene.

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yarrel
I doubt it.

