In the current years, Vancouver’s housing market has exploded. The high amount of affluent immigrants from China especially are to blame. Because of this, the housing prices have nothing to do with the state of the local economy anymore.
Many of the properties in Vancouver are not even used. They are just scooped up by foreign investors and held empty. The problem with this is that very little is known about the influence of foreign ownership because the data to support this claim does not exist.
While this is happening, all the middle class families are forced to move out of the city because it is simply too expensive. The rents and price of purchasing a home have gone up substantially while the wages have barely risen.
The majority of the original population in Vancouver has moved out of the city in way for the new immigrants. If the housing prices do not change, we will see that there will be a small percentage of locals left in the city of Vancouver as all the wealthy immigrants flock to our city.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/vancouver-election-focuses-on-housing-prices-but-observers-say-little-cities-can-do-1.2093798
Image: http://www.ratehub.ca/images/blog/vancouver%20housing%20bubble%202011.jpg