Vancouver and college kids (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay)
Vancouver’s residential market has become so fraught that hundreds of the city’s multimillion-dollar mansions are renting at prices affordable to local students.
Around 800 mansions in the city are listed for rent on Craigslist — and some are renting for under $1,000 per month per bedroom, according to CTV Vancouver.
For example, a $7.23 million home with eight bedrooms is renting for $7,000 a month or around $875 per room. Many have saunas, pool tables and huge dining rooms.
Some owners are likely speculators left sitting on high-end real estate they bought during Vancouver’s residential boom of the last few years, but who want to weather the ongoing correction instead of selling for a loss.
Home prices in the British Columbia city hit a peak last June and plummeted 8 percent through January. The 4.5 percent drop from January 2018 to January 2019 was the most significant annual fall since May 2013.
Renting helps offset taxes associated with the properties, which for some exceed $100,000. On top of property taxes, the British Columbia government instituted a “speculators tax” last year on homes that aren’t occupied by owners for six months of the year and that aren’t rented for more than three months of the year, prompting many part-time residents to put their homes up for rent to qualify for exemption or pay the tax. [CTV Vancouver] – Dennis Lynch
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