Vancouver is infamous for its shockingly expensive real estate market. What could buy you a mansion in Beverly Hills could buy you an old, modest home ready to be torn down in Vancouver. The reason for this ridiculously high-priced market is foreign investment. Calen Falconer-Bayard’s blogpost talks about “the influx of foreign buyers [that] has driven house prices in the 2-5 million range up by 49% since 2009”. He explains that many foreign buyers are illegitimate in the sense that they purchase homes yet fail to ever live in them. I strongly agree with Calen’s opinion that the increasing house prices could be detrimental to citizens, especially as a Vancouverite that plans to live here for the rest of my life. Calen’s post intrigued me and led me to research the implications of these foreign investors.
I feel strongly about this subject because I believe it is a very serious problem that creates hardships for Canadian citizens who actually live and contribute to Vancouver and its economy. This article states that as the number of vacant homes increases, the amount of economic activity in that particular neighbourhood slowly but surely decreases. Additionally, it drives the price of houses up, resulting in an inability for citizens to purchase homes. There are multiple initiatives that the government could take to alleviate this problem, yet nothing has been done to stop foreign investors from purchasing homes that could actually be utilized by people who intend to live in them. Foreign buyers as well as the government “treat houses as commodities, without regard for community livability” (Globe and Mail).