Can’t compare Vancouver’s market with other cities

Neil Sharma
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Trying to put a positive spin on Vancouver’s luxury property prices—where a two-bedroom, 1,831 square foot condo costs $2,660,000—is a tall order.

Sure, in Monaco, a three-bedroom apartment in the District de Fontvieille will go for $14,897,938, and in Hong Kong a three-bedroom apartment on Kennedy Rd. goes for $13,635,200—making that downtown condo in Vancouver look like a bargain.

However, the population of Vancouver proper in 2017 was 675,218, and presuming it has hitherto increased, it will likely only be a marginal boost. Monaco’s population is considerably less, but it’s a known playground for the wealthy. In 2017, Hong Kong estimated its population was 7.392 million, so how does a two-bedroom unit go for over $2 million in Vancouver?

“[Comparing Vancouver to global markets] is totally incongruent,” said Robert Mogensen, a broker with The Mortgage Advantage. “Vancouver is a branch office city, not a head office city, for one thing. It’s not a central banking city like those other world cities, so to compare it is ridiculous. Is it a pleasant place to live? Yes. Is it great for proximity to the mountains for skiing, or for going golfing? Yes. But it’s still a branch office city.”

Point2 Homes recently made the comparison, and while it does have merit—Vancouver is a global real estate staple and prices are a relative bargain compared to those found in London, New York and Paris—it begs the question: Why are prices so expensive in a city with fewer than one million residents?

“Vancouver is very attractive because you can dump your money here and you pay a modest amount of property tax, and because you don’t work here you don’t pay our high income taxes. It’s perfect for someone looking to shelter their money in a safe place,” said Mogensen.

“There’s no reason for a city like Vancouver with a general population and income base here—I mean real Canadian income base—to have prices where they are. The average Canadian worker can’t afford to buy accommodations in Vancouver, and even well-heeled couples with two professional jobs are being forced to look at condos or, at best, townhomes because single-family homes are so far out of reach. There’s something wrong with this picture.”

To elucidate his point, Mogensen noted that a client of his is a doctor and, along with his wife, should be living in a Shaughnessy single-family home in West Vancouver, but instead lives in an eastside townhouse.

“If you have surgeons who can’t afford to live in the most desirable parts of a city, there’s something wrong with that.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd

Effect on Lower Mainland could be much higher, finance minister says

Graeme Wood
Western Investor

An estimated $5.3 billion of laundered money into B.C. real estate in 2018 hiked housing prices about 5 per cent, two special reports released May 9 by the provincial government show.

However, since the figures are for the entire province and based on incomplete data and methodologies, the effecct on specific regions, such as Greater Vancouver, could be much higher, noted Minister of Finance Carole James.

“Our housing market should be used for housing people, not for laundering the proceeds of crime,” said James, via a news release.

Conservative estimates from a report from professors Maureen Maloney, Tsur Somerville and Brigette Unger, titled Combatting Money Laundering in BC Real Estate, indicate there was $7.4 billion laundered in B.C. in 2018, of which two-thirds filtered through the housing sector.

The Maloney report notes: “If all the investment were residential property in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, $5.3 billion of investment would represent 7.4 per cent of 2018 transaction volumes. Share transactions in the 4.6 per cent to 7.4 per cent range are sufficiently large to have an observable impact on real estate prices.”

The report actually estimates the annual impact on home prices thanks to money laundering to be between 3.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent. The overall national estimates are on the conservative end, as they peg money laundering in Canada at 2.1 per cent of GDP whereas the International Monetary Fund estimates global money laundering at between 2 per cent to 5 per cent of GDP. But the $5.3 billion going into real estate is on the high side, based on certain assumptions.

Dirty Money – Part 2 by on Scribd

Additionally, the report notes that if countries, such as China, are under-reporting incidences of crime, then inflows of money will be underestimated.

“Estimated money laundering in B.C. will be particularly underestimated if crime reporting, especially for tax avoidance and corruption, by some East Asian countries that have close ties with B.C. … is incomplete,” the report states.

In the Greater Vancouver area, real estate prices have risen 59.5 per cent over the past five years.

Overall, the report’s authors were comfortable enough to conclude that money laundering has helped to decouple local incomes from real estate prices, fuelling an affordability crisis in the province. And a comprehensive anti-money laundering regime will result in “clear gains” in affordability, even if they are not large in magnitude.

 

The Maloney report was released alongside Dr. Peter German’s report titled Dirty Money – Part 2, which goes into detail on some money laundering methods that appear to be employed in B.C.

While on their own they may not be an outright indication of money laundering, combined, German said these widespread activities present red flags: nominee purchasers, unfinanced purchases, flipping, quickly discharged mortgages, over and undervalued listings and buying sprees.

In many instances, German suggested drawing conclusions involves an element of not knowing what one doesn’t know. He called B.C.’s real estate market “opaque” and took aim, in particular, at agencies that handle financial transactions but who are not required to report suspicious ones to FINTRAC.

“It is believed that much of the overseas capital used for private mortgages transits through Canadian ‘gatekeepers,’ such as lawyers, thereby skewing any data with respect to overseas investment in real estate,” noted German’s report.

In assessing land title data, German determined about 9 per cent of residential mortgages in B.C. are held by 18,570 private lenders, who are not reporting entities to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

German added: “Reporting of suspicious transactions to FINTRAC by realtors has been dismal at best.”

James said the government’s plan to rollout a beneficial ownership registry via the Land Owner Transparency Act next year should assist government agencies in tracking property ownership. As well, the province is working more closely to share income data with Canada Revenue Agency, said James.

Attorney General David Eby said a decision on a public inquiry into money laundering in B.C. is imminent.

Copyright © Western Investor

New Westminster?s Amira will take a position close to shops, transit, schools and restaurants

Michael Bernard
The Province

Amira

What: 41 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes in a six-storey building

Where: 612 Brantford St., New Westminster

Residence size and prices: 613 — 1,014 sq. ft.; one-bedroom homes from $424,900, two-bedroom units from $539,900 and three-bedrooms from $679,900

Developer: Alpha Beta Developments Ltd.

Sales centre: 612 Brantford St., New Westminster

Hours: noon — 5 p.m., Sat — Wed; Grand opening Saturday at noon

Telephone: for sales contacts Sandy Nijjer & Ingrid Torrance 604-833-9193

Think of it as a modern-day version of Friends, the popular 1990s American sitcom, and you get the idea what Johnny Hoang was aiming for when he started looking for an apartment complex where he and two other couples could live side by side. The six think they may have found it in a new boutique-style apartment block called Amira in New Westminster.

Hoang, a financial advisor with CIBC, had been looking on behalf of two other couples for the last two years. Real estate agent Vivian Yu of Oakwyn Realty suggested the couples look at Amira in New Westminster, and Hoang and his fiancée decided to join in.

While the three couples have yet to sign on the dotted line, Yu is confident they will do it when sales officially commence.

Amira, a six-storey woodframe building with 41 homes and a heritage house, is being developed by Alpha Beta Developments, started by Riad Yassin in 1991. The company renovated the two-storey heritage home, which will be sold after it has served its purpose as a sales centre, said company spokesperson Rana Yassin.

Amira, named after the Yassin’s three-year-old granddaughter, has a walk score of 95, a measurement out of 100 points in which the proximity of amenities is rated, including shopping, schools, recreation facilities and transit.

The family-owned company was aiming to attract young people who perhaps had been born and raised in New Westminster and wanted to return to their native city, said Rana Yassin.

Interior designers Lisa Perry and Kate Lee of I3 Design said they incorporated materials and finishes that would appeal to a demographic between 25 and 40 years old. For instance, units are available in both white and grey colour schemes.

“It’s like a hidden treasure in the Lower Mainland,” Perry said. “You are 25 minutes from downtown Vancouver and you don’t have to cross a bridge to get there…There are all sorts of restaurants and boutiques, and it is very walkable to downtown (New Westminster). It really has its own vibe.”

There is premium laminate flooring throughout the kitchen and hallways, with carpeting in the bedrooms.

The kitchen comes equipped with quartz countertops, a double bowl undermount sink in stainless steel, a seamless gloss-finished tile backsplash and a Moen matte-black single-lever faucet.

The bathroom features an exposed concrete-effect tile flooring, quartz countertops with premium undermount sink, a Moen single-handle chrome faucets, and vertical wood-grain vanities with chrome pulls. There is also a walk-in shower and a glass feature wall in the ensuite and a large soaker tub and high-efficiency dual-flush toilet.

The homes also have access to a communal rooftop terrace spanning the footprint of the building, also have landscaped gardens, a barbecue area, children’s play space and dog walks.

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.

Reports point to numerous gaps allowing criminals entry to province’s housing market

Bethany Lindsay
other

An estimated $5.3 billion worth of real estate transactions in B.C. last year were the result of money laundering, helping to fuel the province’s skyrocketing housing prices, according to a new report.

An expert panel on dirty money in the overall real-estate market estimates that five per cent of the value of 2018 purchases were for laundering purposes, contributing to about a five per cent rise in housing prices.

The effect could be more significant in certain markets, including Metro Vancouver, according to the panel, which was commissioned by the provincial government. 

Altogether, dirty money in the real estate market accounted for an estimated 72 per cent of the $7.4 billion that the experts believe was laundered in total in B.C. last year.

“Our economy should work for regular people, not criminals,” said B.C. Finance Minister Carole James. “Housing should provide shelter, not a vehicle for proceeds of crime.”

James said the province will be looking closely at all 29 recommendations put forward by the report, called Combating Money Laundering in B.C. Real Estate.  

“For me, the most important piece of action is transparency — shining that light, taking away that opportunity to hide,” she said.

The panel was chaired by criminal law expert Maureen Maloney. 

Its report was one of two released Thursday that examine the influence of money laundering in B.C.’s real estate market. Both paint an alarming picture of how criminals are using homes to clean their cash.

• Listen to SOLD!, a CBC Vancouver original podcast on B.C.’s real estate market

Former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German produced the second report, named Dirty Money Part 2, which outlines some of the red flags that signal when illegal money is behind a real-estate purchase — including unfinanced purchases, private lending, unusual interest rates and purchases by homemakers and students, for example. 

Both documents identify numerous gaps in provincial and federal systems for keeping track of purchases and reporting suspicious transactions.

• Read more stories about B.C.’s money-laundering controversy

• Fast cars and bags of cash: Gangsters using B.C. luxury car market to launder dirty money

The reports are just the latest entries in B.C.’s ongoing investigation into how proceeds of crime are being cleaned in this province.

Earlier this week, German released findings on money laundering in the luxury vehicle sector, information that Attorney General David Eby called “incredibly disturbing.”

A year ago, German issued his first report, Dirty Money, detailing extensive links between money laundering and B.C. casinos.

The gaps

Both reports identify numerous gaps in regulatory systems at both the federal and provincial levels that have allowed money laundering to flourish in real-estate transactions. Here are just a few:

• Mortgage brokers, lawyers and homebuilders aren’t required to report suspicious transactions to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC).
• There’s little flow of information between FINTRAC and law enforcement agencies.
• B.C.’s Land Title and Survey Authority collects data in a haphazard way that makes it difficult to analyze trends. The database includes multiple spellings for every bank, along with homeowners who describe their occupations as things like “super dad” or “domestic diva.”
• Police agencies in B.C. have come to depend heavily on the civil forfeiture system to deal with money laundering and proceeds of crime cases, rather than using criminal laws that were designed to dismantle criminal organizations.

The recommended solutions

The expert panel applauded some of the actions already underway in B.C., including a beneficial ownership registry that will make information about property owners publicly available. But it also suggested ways to close those gaps, including: 

• Regulating real estate developers through a licensing system.
• Replacing the Mortgage Broker Act.
• Improving data sharing between agencies that deal with money laundering.
• Creating a new financial investigations unit at the B.C. Ministry of Finance.
• Making more professionals accountable to FINTRAC.

The panel also suggests a drastic new measure that would build upon B.C.’s criminal and civil forfeiture system, known as unexplained wealth orders. This would allow the government to confiscate property when there is no evident legitimate source for the funds to purchase it — even if there is no evidence of criminal activity.

©2019 CBC/Radio-Canada

Ministry of housing sets up enforcement group, warns of fines of up to $5,000 a day

Joannah Connolly
Western Investor

The Province of British Columbia is cracking down on landlords and renters who break tenancy laws by setting up a compliance and enforcement unit within the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB), housing minister Selina Robinson announced at a media conference in Victora May 8.

Responding to findings from the Rental Housing Task Force, the role of the RTB’s enforcement unit will be to conduct investigations into repeat or serious offenders who break tenancy laws or fail to meet their contractual obligations.

Minister Robinson said, “What the rental housing task force heard from both renters and landlords is that too many people feel there are no repercussions for breaking tenancy law. That’s changing thanks to our new compliance and enforcement unit. When we hear about landlords who send out five, six, seven eviction notices to all their tenants for cosmetic upgrades, those landlords will hear from us. And when we hear about renters who scam landlords out of months of rent and then move on, those renters can expect a call as well.”

Scott McGregor has been appointed director of the enforcement unit, which currently comprises five staff members who have been working together for five weeks so far. The province said that the new team already has 21 active investigations and recently issued its first administrative penalty against a landlord.

Minister Robinson said that fines for repeated non-compliance could run to as much as $5,000 a day.

McGregor – whom Robinson dubbed “The Enforcer” – said, “The compliance unit is not the first stop [for people having a dispute with their landlord or tenant], as the RTB’s dispute resolution is often very effective. The compliance unit is reserved for those who feel the law doesn’t apply to them.”

Robinson added that since the NDP had started its housing reform program, call wait times at the RTB had fallen from an average of 45 minutes to five minutes.

Education program on tenancy laws

The province also announced a new public education program on residential tenancy laws. The housing ministry said in a statement, “The goal is to provide improved awareness for renters and landlords on their rights and responsibilities, which will reduce the number of cases ending up in arbitration. This enhanced public education will be supported through new funding to Landlord BC and the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre. Additional public education will focus on rules around renovictions, including new policy guidelines introduced last year, to help clarify the many situations when ending a tenancy would be unnecessary or illegal, and the limited situations when a rental unit needs to be vacant for renovations.”

Spencer Chandra Herbert, Vancouver-West End MLA and chair of the Rental Housing Task Force, said, “Sometimes just getting information is enough to stop the bad behaviour. Renters and landlords told us that, in many cases, problems could have been avoided if people had known their rights and responsibilities.” He cited the case of a landlord in Kelowna who had sent out eviction notices due to renovations, who was informed that this was not allowed and removed the eviction notices.

The ministry said that with phase one work on implementing the Rental Housing Task Force recommendations under way, “Phase 2 work will include further actions by the end of 2019. Recommendations that require legislative changes, additional resources, stakeholder consultations or policy work, such as [changing laws on] rental restrictions in strata units, will be considered as part of Phase 3, with actions to come in 2020.”

Copyright © Western Investor

A new survey said that proximity to transit important to home buying

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Busy lives and the changing trends in how we get around is driving greater demand for homes close to good transit links.

In a new survey released Tuesday, 28% of ‘modern family’ homeowners in major Canadian metros said that transit-friendliness is one of their top 3 homebuying criteria.

Sotheby’s International Realty Canada and Mustel Group’s Modern Family Home Ownership Trends Report: Neighbourhoods “in Transit” shows that transit links are more important than car-friendliness (17%) with cycle-friendly neighbourhoods trailing on 4%.

“Transportation and housing have always been inextricably linked. Investments into any transportation infrastracture, whether rapid transit, bus lines, roads, or bikelanes, not only have a direct impact on a community’s quality of life, but often, real estate values,” says Brad Henderson, President and CEO, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.

In Toronto and Vancouver, the importance of transit-friendly neighbourhoods was a priority for around 3 in 10 homebuyers, far outpacing the 13% in Vancouver and 17% in Toronto who rank car-friendliness as a leading location factor.

“The importance that many of today’s young families are placing on neighbourhood public transit access when home buying reflects changing attitudes and values, the strains of cost of living, as well as improvements to transit infrastructure made to date. These priorities also point to what this influential group of buyers will deem prime real estate locations in the future,” added Henderson.

Cutting the commute As work-life balance becomes increasingly important, living closer to work is a priority for modern families.

More than half (57%) of survey respondents said they had bought a home within 30 minutes commute of their work or school; 15% live within 10 minutes and 42% live 10-29 minutes away.

Those in Calgary (69%) are most likely to live within half an hour of their work or school while this is true for around 6 in 10 in Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto.

Young urban families living in Toronto and Vancouver are the most likely to have purchased a home with a commute time of over an hour, at rates of 12% and 13% respectively.

Staying safe

Safety remains the top priority for homebuyers across all regions and overall 48% said safety was a top 3 location factor.

This rises to 45% of modern families in Vancouver, 50% in Calgary, 51% in Toronto and 46% in Montreal.

“Metropolitan areas across Canada have been grappling with balancing the needs of growing populations, and various priorities in transportation, ” says Josh O’Neill, General Manager of Mustel Group. “This report sheds light on the specific needs and priorities of young urban families when it comes to the neighbourhoods in which they live and buy real estate, with findings that highlight the importance of the issue of transportation for this cohort.”

The full report can be found at mustelgroup.com

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd

Professionals waiting for more details on FTHBI

Kara Kuryllowicz
REW

Will the First-Time Home Buyers Incentive (FTHBI) really help Canadians that are ready to commit to a home of their very own?

Put that question to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation representatives and they’ll tell you it helps make homes more affordable. Ask mortgage brokers in Toronto and Vancouver and they’ll point out FTHBI will likely benefit first-time home buyers purchasing outside Canada’s most expensive cities the most. As importantly, first-time home buyers, mortgage and real estate agents and other real estate professionals are all waiting on additional FTHBI details and its official September launch. In late April, CMHC said that “more details on the terms and conditions around that will be shared in the coming months.”

“FTHBI is a political strategy that will have little, if any impact, on first-time home buyers seeking homes in downtown or central Toronto, because most homes are above the $480,000 maximum mortgage amount including the CMHC loan,” says Darlene Hanley, mortgage agent, Mortgage Architects, Toronto, who notes 30% of her clients are first-time buyers. “I’ve had very few queries about it so far, whether it’s because of my focus on downtown Toronto or the FTHBI’s September start date.”

Here are the FTHBI facts the CMHC has shared so far:

• It is expected that approximately 100,000 first-time home buyers would be able to benefit from the Incentive over the course of the program’s three years.
• FTHBI is limited to households with a maximum combined income of $120,000. In addition, the program caps out at four times the applicant’s annual income, which means it can only help homeowners looking to buy properties where the mortgage value including the CMHC loan doesn’t exceed $480,000.
• The maximum equity CMHC will take in a first home purchase is 10% of a newly built home and 5% of an existing home. It will also require borrowers to meet minimum insured mortgage down payment requirements.

Since no ongoing payments would be required on the Incentive, Canadian families would have lower monthly mortgage payments. For example, if a borrower purchases a new $400,000 home with a 5 per cent down payment and a 10 per cent CMHC shared equity mortgage ($40,000), the borrower’s total mortgage size would be reduced from $380,000 to $340,000, reducing the borrower’s monthly mortgage costs by as much as $228 per month.

Of course, first-time home buyers still have to pass the B-20 stress test introduced by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to prove they can handle interest rates that may become  substantially higher than their contract rate.

“You still need to be pre-approved, qualify for a mortgage and prove you can carry that mortgage as well as your living expenses,” says Hanley. “The FTHBI has very little tangible impact on the first-time home buyers’ financial situation.”

First-time home buyers can use search sites such as REW.CA to find a variety of listings that meet CMHC’s price criteria. Buyers will have to decide whether the homes and their locations align with their lifestyles and needs.

“First-time buyers are interested, but in the Greater Vancouver Area, the homes that meet the FTHBI price criteria tend to be older, smaller and in less desirable locations, but I will always recommend getting into the market as soon as you possible can – that’s my best advice,” says Elvis Hui, mortgage broker, the owner and founder of Guaranti Mortgages, Vancouver. “First-time buyers who earn more than $120,000 combined tend to want bigger, newer homes in the downtown core.”

Despite the income and borrowing limits, the CMHC is “confident this program can work in all markets, including Vancouver and Toronto.” The average insured home in Canada is worth $284,000, less than the national average house price of $470,000. The CMHC points out market average prices ($1 million in Vancouver and $770,000 in Toronto) shouldn’t be confused with starter home prices. Condos in Vancouver’s Yaletown and homes in Toronto’s Riverdale neighborhoods are well beyond the cap, but CMHC notes around 23% of transactions in Toronto are for homes under $500,000 and 10% in Vancouver. According to the CMHC, more than 2,000 home buyers in Toronto could be eligible for the FTHBI and over 1,000 in Greater Vancouver.

 “In view of the limited GTA inventory below that price point and the limited information to date, I suspect it will prove appealing and effective to a very limited group of first-timers,” says Toronto mortgage broker Lee Welbanks.

The Home Buyers Plan, which allows first-time home buyers to withdraw funds from an RRSP to purchase or build a home without having to immediately pay tax on the withdrawal. In 2019, the government increased to $35,000 from $25,000 per spouse or partner. Amounts withdrawn must be repaid to the RRSP over a 15-year period.

Over the next several months, first-time home buyers can top up their savings and start talking to their brokers and agents to preparing for the coming investment opportunity.

© 2019 REW. A Division of Glacier Media.

Realtor was reprimanded for failing to review strata documents

Gary McKenna
Western Investor

Days after moving in, the purchaser of a townhouse unit in Port Moody received a welcome package from the strata council stating that a vote on roof replacement options would take place at the annual general meeting on Dec. 15. | File photo

A Coquitlam realtor was reprimanded for failing to review strata documents that led to his client being hit with an unexpected $17,000 property assessment within weeks of buying a Port Moody townhouse.

According to a consent order from the Real Estate Council of British Columbia, Larrie Andrew Forbes should have known that a roof replacement was imminent for a property his client wanted to purchase on Foxwood Drive in 2016. The construction work was noted multiple times as far back as 2013 in strata minutes and documents provided by the seller’s realtor.

“Mr. Forbes did not review or discuss the documents with the complainant,” said an RECBC consent order, noting the deal for the property was free of subjects. 

“Mr. Forbes failed to advise the complainant to seek independent professional advice regarding entering into a subject-free contract of purchase and sale, and in fact he recommended that she make a subject-free offer.”

According to the consent order, the townhouse was purchased on Sept. 17, 2016, for $520,000, with the buyer taking possession on Dec. 1. The person who launched the complaint against Forbes was not named in the RECBC documents. 

Days after moving in, the new homeowner received a welcome package from the strata council stating that a vote on roof replacement options would take place at the annual general meeting on Dec. 15. 

At the AGM, residents voted in favour of a special assessment of close to $1.2 million, of which the new homeowner would have to pay $17,402. 

“Until she received the welcome package, the complainant was unaware of the roof replacement project and unaware of the special assessment (or the possibility of a special assessment) pertaining to the roof replacement,” the consent order stated.

The RECBC consent committee said Forbes should have taken better care in reviewing strata documents and inserted a hold-back clause into the purchasing contract to account for any special assessments. 

Discipline action was commenced against Forbes on Jan. 16. Last month, he was ordered to pay a $7,500 penalty and $1,500 in enforcement costs.

Copyright © Western Investor

Sales down compared to April last year

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Weak demand continues to pull down the Vancouver housing market’s sales volume, according to new figures from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV).

Overall transactions declined by 29.1% annually in April, down to 1,829 sales. This is despite a gain of 5.9% from the 1,727 deals in March.

The region’s inventory saw the addition of 5,742 new for-sale listings last month, up by 16% from the 4,949 new listings in March.

Overall supply in Greater Vancouver was 14,357 homes for sale, around 46% greater than the supply seen on April 2018.

“There are more homes for sale in our market today than we’ve seen since October 2014,” REBGV president Ashley Smith said, as quoted by BNN Bloomberg. “This trend is more about reduced demand than increased supply.”

The REBGV pointed at B-20, especially the mandated stress testing, as the main factor behind the region’s feeble activity.

“Suppressing housing activity through government policy not only reduces home sales, it harms the job market, economic growth and creates pent-up demand,” Smith noted.

“The federal government’s mortgage stress test has reduced buyers’ purchasing power by about 20%, which is causing people at the entry-level side of the market to struggle to secure financing.”

In its recent report, Zoocasa found that an income of at least $205,475 is needed to buy a Vancouver home at the benchmark price ($1,441,000), assuming a 20% down payment at a 3.75% mortgage rate on a 30-year term.

Condos have joined the price growth trend, as well. An income of at least $93,527 is required to purchase a benchmark unit ($656,900).

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd