It may not be news to us – but the New York Times just ran a story on how expensive condos are in Vancouver:
“When I try to explain to friends in the States how much it costs here, they don’t believe me,” Ms. Gill, 29, who is a real estate broker, said of the city’s high prices. “They say, ‘You’re lying.’”
But $840 a square foot — which is how much the couple paid for their condo — is not unusual these days.
Downtown Vancouver is the most expensive housing market in Canada, according to a survey of 21 cities worldwide released last April by Century 21. The average sales price for a condo in Vancouver was around $419,750 in 2007, up 14.6 percent from last year, according to Royal Le Page Real Estate Services. The average sales price in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, was about $241,818, up 15.7 percent from last year, and in Montreal, $201,818, up 4.6 percent.
The whole story here.
I have to say I find these prices incredible for a regional economy with signficantly less head office employment than Calgary.
But should I really be surprised? I believe the real purpose of the LRSP and Transport 2021, and of all Greater Vancouver planning really, is to produce this kind of result, that is, extraordinarily high prices for residential real estate. And to me it looks like it has worked beautifully. The only thing I still find hard to believe is the degree to which they have been able to push things.