A story by Business in Vancouver, a sister publication of Burnaby NOW, is raising quite a ruckus.
BIV’s story said a wave of land speculators led by mainland Chinese buyers is snapping up old Burnaby rental apartment buildings, driving per door prices above $350,000. The buyers, of course, hope to flip these parcels of land to developers who want to build high rises. The land rush is centred around four transit-linked Burnaby town centres, where, according to BIV, at least three dozen apartment rental buildings have been bought for demolition in the past year.
This really shouldn’t be a surprise. Foreign speculation on B.C. real estate is not news. What differentiates this story from previous ones is that a broker actually provided some details and figures.
Ben Williams, a broker with Burnaby-based London Pacific Property Agents Inc., told BIV that, “At least 95 per cent of recent (new) condominium sales in Metrotown are by buyers of Chinese descent.”
Many of those foreign owners of the new condos are putting them up as rental stock, but these will not be rented for $1,000. The average investor condo in Metro Vancouver rents for $1,400. And with a vacancy rate of 0.7 per cent it’s a good business to get into.
Burnaby MP Stewart Kennedy called for a study on the whole deal in an effort to get a handle on what policies or rules could be put in place to ensure that the market is not driven entirely by foreign ownership.
The city has no real jurisdiction over such things, and can really only try to help those who have been evicted when their old apartment buildings are razed.
Stewart’s gesture is, unfortunately, just that. It is a cry into the dark. It is clear that both the federal and provincial government have no intention of doing anything about this issue. It might, after all, slow down the cash flow. And that, as we know, for the political leaders in power, is all that matters.
