>related : Vancouver BC reaching third most expensive city in the world status a couple of years back, for reasons that have little or nothing to do with local populations
What is it due to? I imagine ease of access to Chinese people who want a place to park their savings, plus nice weather, are the biggest factors. After all, all those wealthy Chinese people could just go to another city, like Edmonton, but they don't: what kind of insane person would want to live in a place where it's -40 in the winter if they didn't grow up there?
- A large chinese community already being there, seeded by the HK hand over to china. The HK wave did not cause a real estate crisis.
- Being known as a "good investment" in China.
- RE firms that market in china for vancouver.
- Most importantly of all, bad enforcement of money laundering and foreign income laws compared to the USA.
If money laundering and tax laws were enforced as badly as Canada in the USA, I bet many of these chinese would be in the USA. The pacific north west is not considered a good place weather wise in the USA.
>The pacific north west is not considered a good place weather wise in the USA.
Where did you get that crazy idea? The PNW is known for being mild, though rainy and not terribly warm. People who like a lot of sun wouldn't like it. But compared to most parts of the country, it's known for "good" weather: in the northeast, it's snowy and brutally cold during the winter. In the southeast, it's brutally hot and humid during the summer, and there's hurricanes. In the (desert) southwest, it's horrifically hot during the summer. In the middle/plains states, it's brutally cold in the winter and there's regular tornadoes. In the Dakotas/Minnesota area, it's horrifically cold in the winter. The PNW doesn't have any of that stuff. Compared to southern California, the weather may not seem as nice to many people, but most of the rest of America does not have the consistently mild and warm weather year-round that SoCal has. But PNW does have consistently mild weather year-round for the most part, albeit without so much sun, and a lot of rain.
A lot of random people I run into in the USA make icky faces when I tell them about the PNW and it's weather. I've also lived there for many years, there are many climates in the USA I would prefer over the PNW, since AC is a thing.
Really healthy support of money laundering by other countries (eg USA, Russia). People blame China "because visible". Although chasing the money there it more seems like China too is making for a nice place for ultrarich (1%) and others (eg drug dealers) trying to dodge taxes or other laws in various countries.
There's no data tracked though, and outside of the RCMP investigation there's basically no public information beyond speculation of possible causes.
Other than it's not population pressure.
There's very large ties between Vancouver, India and China visibly - but nothing to the degree costs hit. I found living there that the influences of India and China helped moderate things and help the city be more liveable.
What is it due to? I imagine ease of access to Chinese people who want a place to park their savings, plus nice weather, are the biggest factors. After all, all those wealthy Chinese people could just go to another city, like Edmonton, but they don't: what kind of insane person would want to live in a place where it's -40 in the winter if they didn't grow up there?