The Hongcouver | Something is grotesquely wrong with Vancouver’s housing market, and the time for denialism is over

Reading Time:4 minutes

All this could be yours for a mere C$1.39 million...bang on the average price for a detached home in Greater Vancouver. Photo: Ian Young

Published: 6:30am, 21 May 2015Updated: 11:49am, 23 Feb 2016

The realisation that something is grotesquely awry with Vancouver’s housing market has reached a tipping point.

Fuelled by the special sauce of Chinese wealth - and good old Fear of Missing Out - prices have decoupled from the local economy, with an average detached price of about C$1.4 million (HK$8.9 million). So far, so normal for Vancouver.

But the past couple of months have witnessed a kind of awakening.

Chinese-Canadian Eveline Xia - herself an immigrant - helped get the ball rolling with her very first tweet on March 18, in which the 29-year-old environmental scientist created the hashtag #donthave1million, and posted a plaintive cry about the drain of young Vancouverites being priced out of the city she loves. “To thrive, does @CityofVancouver not need people like you and me?” she asked.

It hit a nerve. Fellow millennials jumped on board #donthave1million, posting their own tales of real estate woe.

Eveline Xia's March 18 tweet that kicked off the hashtag #donthave1million

Around the same time, a petition sprang up on change.org, demanding that BC Premier Christy Clark and local mayors “restrict foreign investment in Greater Vancouver's residential real estate market”. The petition had about 24,000 supporters as of Wednesday.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x