Chinese Student Purchases $31-Million Vancouver Mansion - Polidicks

[img]https://vice-images.vice.com/images/content-images/2016/05/12/student-owns-this-31-million-vancouver-mansion-body-image-1463072860.png[/img] [quote]A Google search of the word "Vancouver" these days reveals article after article about the city's absurdly hot rental market—one that young Canadians supposedly have no chance of breaking into. [/quote] [quote]Tian Yu Zhou, whose occupation is simply "student," owns 99 percent of the 14,600 square-foot property, one of the most expensive in the province. While many young Vancouverites are [url=http://www.vancouversun.com/life/More+Metro+Vancouver+residents+turning+vans+trailers+avoid+high+housing+costs/11516225/story.html]eating raw food out[/url] of their [url=http://bc.ctvnews.ca/it-s-comfortable-couple-living-in-van-has-no-interest-in-going-back-to-condo-1.2833465]vans[/url] to get by, young scholar Zhou is apparently chilling in his five-bedroom, eight-bathroom crib, complete with a landscaped swimming pool, "bocce court," and views of the ocean and mountains, all sitting on 1.7 acres of land. Understandably, people are wondering how the fuck this is even possible. [/quote] [quote]To be fair, Zhou reportedly shares the home with a "businesswoman" who owns one percent of the property. According to a 2015 study, cited in The Province, homemakers/housewives are commonly listed as occupations in purchases of single family homes in the city's west side, followed by businessperson. The trend could link back to the practice of foreign real estate investors naming local relatives as home owners to avoid paying certain taxes. [/quote] [url=https://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/student-owns-this-31-million-vancouver-mansion]**SOURCE**[/url] [url=http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/vancouver-mansion-sold-by-canaccord-founder-for-record-31-1-million-now-owned-by-student-records-show]Second[/url] and [url=http://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/12/311-million-vancouver-mansion-owned-by-student]third[/url] source in case a mod doesn't like Vice as a source. Frankly this is so much shit. The loophole is right there staring at us and everyone can see it and the government isn't gonna act. Meanwhile I'm kinda surprised. [quote]many young Vancouverites are eating raw food out of their vans to get by[/quote] Frankly I thought it was only me and like two other people who were crazy enough to live out of their cars there. I guess my idea of buying a camper van and renting a PO box wasn't as crazy as I thought.

[quote]five-bedroom, eight-bathroom[/quote] Why?

Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?

[QUOTE=pointyface;50322871]Why?[/QUOTE] The architect really likes ethnic food.

What's the loophole?

[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;50322879]Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?[/QUOTE] they don't live there. mainland chinese buy absurdly-expensive homes in a country they've never been to because they can use the property to launder money, usually when they sell it.

[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;50322879]Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?[/QUOTE] If you have the money, why not?

[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;50322879]Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?[/QUOTE] more than one person can share a bedroom but they cant share a toilet and frankly why not

[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;50322879]Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?[/QUOTE] Most likely each bedroom has a full bath then theres half baths by the kitchen and stuff. with a house that size you dont want to go on a hike to take a shit.

Does anyone else find it a bit odd that the article is whinging about Vancouver's real estate market as one which young Canadians can't enter, but the article is talking about the sale of a huge mansion - such real estate which young Canadians would never be able to afford anyways? If it wasn't a Chinese 'student' buying it, it would be a multi-millionaire baby boomer instead.

[QUOTE=Alxnotorious;50322891]What's the loophole?[/QUOTE] [quote]The student (likely foreign) claims it as his primary residence. The real owner is the women who owns 1% for whom the house is not a primary residence. The reason they do this is to avoid paying capital gains taxes. If that value goes up say 10% over 5 years they just stole roughly 700-800k dollars from BC and Canadian tax payers. ((31mill*0.10)/2)*top tax rate[/quote] [QUOTE=sb27;50322915]Does anyone else find it a bit odd that the article is whinging about Vancouver's real estate market as one which young Canadians can't enter, but the article is talking about the sale of a huge mansion - such real estate which young Canadians would never be able to afford anyways?[/quote] It's beating around the Chinese bush. We know what the problem is and we know how to stop it dead but in doing so we brand ourselves racist and indifferent to other cultures. No media outlet has the balls to say it for fear of being ripped apart.

[QUOTE=sb27;50322915]Does anyone else find it a bit odd that the article is whinging about Vancouver's real estate market as one which young Canadians can't enter, but the article is talking about the sale of a huge mansion - such real estate which young Canadians would never be able to afford anyways? If it wasn't a Chinese 'student' buying it, it would be a multi-millionaire baby boomer instead.[/QUOTE] Pentium has an axe to grind. He always posts stuff like this.

[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;50322879]Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?[/QUOTE] A bathroom is qualified by having a toilet (and depending on agency, sink. Though usually just a toilet.) A bedroom is qualified by being so-many square feet (varies by location) and having a closet. So, if you have a bathroom for your rec room and kitchen, that's a bathroom but no bedroom to go with it. In fact, if every bedroom has a personal bathroom, that's only three bathrooms for the rest of the house. From the air, it looks absolutely sprawling.

[QUOTE=download;50323175]Pentium has an axe to grind. He always posts stuff like this.[/QUOTE] To be fair this is one of the many huge problems plaguing BC. Their housing market is utterly fucked. Still, kinda funny he didn't crack any fucking jokes about it like he did when he posted the article of Fort Mac burning to the ground.

[QUOTE=download;50323175]Pentium has an axe to grind. He always posts stuff like this.[/QUOTE] As would you if you knew what happens in our markets.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;50323283]As would you if you knew what happens in our markets.[/QUOTE] Chinese investors flooding into domestic real estate isn't exclusive to Canada. It happens here too, although many people consider negative gearing or housing supply as more-pressing issues.

[QUOTE=sb27;50322915]Does anyone else find it a bit odd that the article is whinging about Vancouver's real estate market as one which young Canadians can't enter, but the article is talking about the sale of a huge mansion - such real estate which young Canadians would never be able to afford anyways? If it wasn't a Chinese 'student' buying it, it would be a multi-millionaire baby boomer instead.[/QUOTE] It isn't just mansions, from what I understand realestate is very hard to come by because the prices are jacked up much more than normal, and lots of it is purchased by these types of people. [QUOTE=download;50323175]Pentium has an axe to grind. He always posts stuff like this.[/QUOTE] Maybe because he's Canadian and this is a problem effecting us? I'd sure like to live in Vancouver but it would be fucking impossible unless I happen to become a doctor or something. Someone I used go to school with couldn't survive living in Vancouver and died homeless there.

[QUOTE=sb27;50323324]Chinese investors flooding into domestic real estate isn't exclusive to Canada. It happens here too, although many people consider negative gearing or housing supply as more-pressing issues.[/QUOTE] But we are however the #1 choice for them.

[QUOTE=Karmah;50323408] Maybe because he's Canadian and this is a problem effecting us? I'd sure like to live in Vancouver but it would be fucking impossible unless I happen to become a doctor or something. Someone I used go to school with couldn't survive living in Vancouver and died homeless there.[/QUOTE] How does this have anything to do with that. We all know that Vancouver has some stupid high housing prices, but this mansion being sold doesnt mean shit

[QUOTE=Code3Response;50323531]How does this have anything to do with that. We all know that Vancouver has some stupid high housing prices, but this mansion being sold doesnt mean shit[/QUOTE] It's a shitty example of a very real problem.

[QUOTE=download;50323175]Pentium has an axe to grind. He always posts stuff like this.[/QUOTE] I admit and apologize for the bias but everyone in BC at least has an axe here to grind about them. [QUOTE=chunkymonkey;50323267]Still, kinda funny he didn't crack any fucking jokes about it like he did when he posted the article of Fort Mac burning to the ground.[/QUOTE] Implied provincial elitism is not the same as racism directly or implied. You better quit thinking that pretty fast.

[QUOTE=Code3Response;50323531]How does this have anything to do with that. We all know that Vancouver has some stupid high housing prices, but this mansion being sold doesnt mean shit[/QUOTE] Try reading the rest of my post :^)

[QUOTE=Karmah;50323579]Try reading the rest of my post :^)[/QUOTE] and by "these type people" you mean the wealthy, I assume.

Why are they even allowed to own land in Canada?

Vancouver is basically a colony of China at this point. How did we let this happen?

[QUOTE=Code3Response;50323591]and by "these type people" you mean the wealthy, I assume.[/QUOTE] Wealthy investors buy property, and don't live in it for the majority of the year. Wealthy buyers come and buy tear downs at inflated prices to friendly real estate agents. Said real estate agents abused a loop hole in the system to inflate prices via "shadow flipping". Vancouver housing market is literally unaitainable for locals. Rental properties are aged and very pricey disabling anyone from saving. New properties for rent are being bought out and rerented at a higher price in the areas with the loopholes for this. This continued for the last 12 years, minimum. The reason our policy makers let it is they claim a lack of data, a lack of power to solve it, they push it on to the provincial government which benefits a good deal via the economy here being artificially inflated and they both routinely empower themselves as well as delete their paper trails as well as push the problem back on to the municipalities which seemingly don't have the power to do anything.

[QUOTE=Dark RaveN;50322879]Eight-bathroom with five-bedroom? Why the fuck would you have more bathrooms than bedrooms?[/QUOTE] the challenge is to shit in one while peeing in another

What are planning permissions like in Vancouver? Is there artificially restricted supply? Or is it just foreign buyers overwhelming the market? Because in London, where I live, the ridiculous housing prices are often blamed upon foreign buyers when in fact they are far more to do with artificially restricted housing supply to benefit home owners.

Didn't Vancouver have a 1 million dollar grow op?

[QUOTE=Taepodong-2;50323643]Vancouver is basically a colony of China at this point. How did we let this happen?[/QUOTE] same thing happened in the Seattle and San Francisco, its a shore of empty real-estate in some parts of town. the city wants money, people are willing to pay an overpriced premium for their houses, and the city doesn't care as long as they get their property tax.