College Kids Are Living Like Kings in Vancouver’s Empty Mansions

I saw a similar article like this last month or so.<p>This is a more realistic article on the subject: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vancouverisawesome.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;03&#x2F;11&#x2F;renting-luxury-mansion-vancouver-bc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vancouverisawesome.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;03&#x2F;11&#x2F;renting-luxury...</a><p>Note that I&#x27;ve tried figuring out where to rent these rooms and reaching out but so far have remained fruitless.

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.<p>But, one of the bigger problems we&#x27;re facing is the underlying cost of building homes. Humanity hasn&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;t going change things significantly in the long term.

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.<p>No one can credibly discount those impacts now.

ITT, people who think<p>- economic free lunches exist<p>- any capital after their capital came to an area is illegitimate<p>- markets don&#x27;t price in risk or volatility<p>- policy doesn&#x27;t affect the agent on the margin, decreases costs to his marginal &#x27;neighbors&#x27;: 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&#x27;s the reason why those cities gentrify: only high-consumer-surplus buyers can survive the policy changes.<p>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).

This is the 5th or 6th time this story pops up here, and it always features &quot;The Castle&quot;.<p>To me that doesn&#x27;t even look like a mansion, more like a pastiche, the exterior &#x2F; materials look very cheap.

As far as I can tell most mansions are being rented out to high income locals, not to groups of college kids.<p>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.<p>All the ones I saw explicitly disallowed subletting&#x2F;group tenancies in the rental agreements.

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

&gt; apparently owned by an Afghani pop artist<p>Afghani pop artists who own mansions in Vancouver is a really small category.

God those houses are hideous.

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

&gt;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?”<p>Please let this happen in the SF Bay area

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

Those taxes are obscene.

I doubt it.