I am not an economist but I was a self employed business owner for most of my life. But even so the concept of building more units to bring affordability down is a mystery to me. If construction continues with profits forever progressing upwards when do prices begin to fall? Do we assume that when the supply of residential units reach a point of over supply then the ratio of demand drops and prices fall? Why would developers continue to build if that were the case? If prices were to level off or even drop then can’t we assume that building more units would stop until demand increased again to drive prices up. Developers don’t build unless it is profitable. In that case why would prices ever fall or become ‘affordable’? I sincerely wonder if we aren’t being played by the developers in Vancouver.
I agree with you. This supply demand rhetoric is a myth now considering the mutiple forces that are pulling and pushing on the land, market and finance. Government is too slow to respond to curb the glut. We are in a bind. Between the the zoning that makes it hard for regular landlords to run rentals at decent and affordable rents due to their property prices skyrocketing, and the vulture investments firms circling to get these older stock of buildings as they come up for sale due to the pressure the local mom and pop landlords might feel, and so called distressed assets are the first to be snapped up. This happened in the US in the financial crisis where Blackstone purchased 50,000 detached homes. Here they are coming in and working with Starlight and others like them and snapping up apartment rentals/buildings as fast as they can. etc etc Here are a couple of articles that dig a bit into this:
Vancouver Tenants Union against the Broadway plan is organizing a Rally 5-8pm on May 17th at City Hall. Free BBQ :-)
NO to tenant displacement, Say NO to unaffordable housing. Hope to see many of you there. We need to connect across neighbourhoods and unite our communities to fight the monstrosity of the Broadway plan where I am not seeing enough homework done on preserving our affordable housing and not displacing people who have lived here most of their lives.
Daniela, I am jammed up against deadlines that may prevent me from attending, but I am forwarding to my son, who is a renter and was at the Saturday protest. Thanks for this.
I am not an economist but I was a self employed business owner for most of my life. But even so the concept of building more units to bring affordability down is a mystery to me. If construction continues with profits forever progressing upwards when do prices begin to fall? Do we assume that when the supply of residential units reach a point of over supply then the ratio of demand drops and prices fall? Why would developers continue to build if that were the case? If prices were to level off or even drop then can’t we assume that building more units would stop until demand increased again to drive prices up. Developers don’t build unless it is profitable. In that case why would prices ever fall or become ‘affordable’? I sincerely wonder if we aren’t being played by the developers in Vancouver.
I agree with you. This supply demand rhetoric is a myth now considering the mutiple forces that are pulling and pushing on the land, market and finance. Government is too slow to respond to curb the glut. We are in a bind. Between the the zoning that makes it hard for regular landlords to run rentals at decent and affordable rents due to their property prices skyrocketing, and the vulture investments firms circling to get these older stock of buildings as they come up for sale due to the pressure the local mom and pop landlords might feel, and so called distressed assets are the first to be snapped up. This happened in the US in the financial crisis where Blackstone purchased 50,000 detached homes. Here they are coming in and working with Starlight and others like them and snapping up apartment rentals/buildings as fast as they can. etc etc Here are a couple of articles that dig a bit into this:
Rental Housing Investment Future
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/rental-housing-investment-feature?fbclid=IwAR0r39Kacq-Sy3Nfi2JIzW8jZ8sDV-NTviMfgP_dx9DsfvFzbvfAD_pX8tw
and
Ticking time bomb threatening affordable rental homes
https://vancouversun.com/business/real-estate/dan-fumano-the-ticking-time-bomb-threatening-affordable-rental-homes
Look at my latest CC for a 5 storey alternative that works. Thanks for reading, Edward. https://brianpalmquist.substack.com/p/feint-by-numbers-5-not-20?s=w
Thank you Brian for all your work
You are most welcome. It was good to meet you at Saturday's rally. Stay tuned, more coming!
Vancouver Tenants Union against the Broadway plan is organizing a Rally 5-8pm on May 17th at City Hall. Free BBQ :-)
NO to tenant displacement, Say NO to unaffordable housing. Hope to see many of you there. We need to connect across neighbourhoods and unite our communities to fight the monstrosity of the Broadway plan where I am not seeing enough homework done on preserving our affordable housing and not displacing people who have lived here most of their lives.
Daniela, I am jammed up against deadlines that may prevent me from attending, but I am forwarding to my son, who is a renter and was at the Saturday protest. Thanks for this.