Times Have Changed

I have been renting out my apartments for years and have seen a huge shift. About 10 years ago I had a lot of difficulty finding tenants to the point I had to offer free cable and internet to just get people in. A lot of the time I would only have 3 people to choose from and most were sketchy at best. Now I get hundreds of emails and can pick and choose. The last couple I rented to both had great jobs. One was a teacher and the other was an engineer. In the back of my mind I kept thinking why are these people renting and not buying. In my day these kinds of people would be living in Kitsilano or the West Side. I am a groundskeeper by trade and it just shocks me how the world has changed. Young guys I work with live in their cars and shower and shave in the community centers. I am just lucky us old tops got in while the getting was good or we would be in the shits. Something is wrong if two people with good jobs can't afford houses in Vancouver.

13 Comments

Post a Comment

RR

Sep 4, 2018 at 7:29pm

Wow
Most people in your generation fancy themselves Rockefeller industrialists bc they made a fortune by selling their house through no force of will or aptitude...just sheer luck of timing.
Appreciate hearing at least some of your acknowledge how things have changed.

37 6Rating: +31

Just ask yourself

Sep 4, 2018 at 7:56pm

Would it be like this if the enormous wave of immigration that flooded this city never happened. The answer is simply, no.

Greed kills

Sep 4, 2018 at 8:07pm

That what happens when people become addicted to foreign money. They have wet dreams about Chinese people knocking on their door and handing them a suitcase full of money. Until we start looking after locals and their needs and stop trying to sell every last thing to foreign buyers , nothing will improve.

42 5Rating: +37

Blame immigration

Sep 4, 2018 at 10:18pm

We are all immigrants but this isn’t normal immigration policy. The diversity police will come get you and destroy your job and livliehood if you criticize this colonization.

On Liberty!

Sep 4, 2018 at 11:16pm

Conquering Canadians through globalization.

registereduser

Sep 5, 2018 at 8:03am

Two people with good jobs can easily afford Maple ridge or Coquitlam or Surrey....but that's not "COOL" enough for them. So let them rent at inflated prices and you get the benefits.

@registered

Sep 5, 2018 at 8:50am

Do you,or are you willing to commute 2 or 3 hours a day?

@registered

Sep 5, 2018 at 9:06am

Why do people like you keep saying such garbage? Even houses in areas like Maple Ridge are still unaffordable for many people. What do you consider to be “good” jobs? Where both people are making at least 6 figures? Of course, those people better not want kids or already have kids, because they’re not going to have any time for them, what with having to work such long hours and then commute for a minimum of two hours a day on top of that. When people who were born and raised here are forced to leave their own hometown because of the greed of far too many, something is very wrong with that society. What’s happened here is in no way a normal situation and wouldn’t ever have happened unless our corrupt government hadn’t willingly turned a blind eye to the obvious illegal activity going on and to the suffering of their own citizens.

Supershy1

Sep 5, 2018 at 10:05am

We need immigration, this country is one cannot sustain itself w/ the population it has (we have the same number of people than LA in all of Canada!).

However, we need to change foreign investment rules. No shadow real estate, put back into the economy, be a resident for more than six months! (also, disallow students or housewives as the primary buyer of a $1.1 million house, as you know what's happening here)

It's easier to scapegoat Asians as we identify them as foreigners -- sure the easy route would be to stop Asians from buying but unless you change the rules, it doesn't solve the problem but just reverts to another country taken advantage of our system.

John titor

Sep 5, 2018 at 11:02am

That’s what happens when you sell out your country and turn an entire region into an international hub for money laundering. Shame on those who let this happen and destroy such a pretty place.

Join the Discussion

What's your name?