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Vancouver housing prices have been growing at an alarming rate for the past few years, and now finally, residents are getting fed up with the lack of action from political leaders to dissuade foreign ownership.<\/span><\/p>\n A new\u00a0Change.org<\/a>\u00a0petition calls for action from Premier Christy Clark, Mayor Gregor Robertson and mayors and city councillors of Metro Vancouver to restrict foreign investment in Vancouver\u2019s residential real estate market.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to stand up and protect our community\u2014Vancouver is not for sale,\u201d the petition reads. \u201cThe housing needs of Greater Vancouver residents are more important than the profit margins of foreign speculators.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The brief petition by a resident by the name of JW Gamal does not offer any suggestions on how to curb the influx of foreign ownership. It currently has 218 supporters out of a necessary 500.<\/span><\/p>\n One Vancouver resident and supporter of the petition, Sylvia H., feels very strongly about the issue pushing born-and-bred Vancouverites out of their home.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t just sit back and complain about it and do nothing.\u00a0 As the electorate, we should be demanding that the government do something about this to preserve our communities for future generations.\u00a0 If nothing is done about this now, it is entirely possible that the Lower Mainland may be substantially foreign-owned in the next 10 \u2013 20 years,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo one born and raised here will be able to buy anything \u2013 the next generation will all be renting from foreign landlords who will charge exorbitant rates of rent \u2013 because they will be able to \u2013 and because we allowed them to come and buy the entire Lower Mainland.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sylvia also makes a timely observation on how overseas buyers are ballooning wider problems in the city, including congestion.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cForeign ownership is driving up house prices, which forces local families to look further and further away to find affordable housing. That means they will probably be reliant on a vehicle to get anywhere, which contributes to road congestion, and which is why we are now at the place we are at with a transit plebiscite. In my mind it is all connected.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Even more than the cause-and-effect scenario Sylvia plays out, is the moral issue at hand. In 2014, a leaked report from China\u2019s central bank reported that 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned enterprises illicitly acquired over $123 billion US and fled to countries such as Canada, the U.S., Australia and the Netherlands.<\/span><\/p>\n In a\u00a0Huffington Post blog<\/a>, National Post editor-at-large, Diane Francis aptly summarized how so many wealthy Chinese are getting into the Canadian housing market.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to buy a condo or luxury goods with funds from a trust managed by a shell company in Grand Cayman, owned by another trust in Guernsey with an account in Luxembourg managed by a Swiss banker who doesn\u2019t know who the owner is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Though Canada does not keep public data on foreign ownership, making it one of the few in the world not to do so, numerous studies on Vancouver\u2019s housing prices have pointed to overseas money as a large reason why housing prices have increased by up to 50 per cent in some neighbourhoods.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier this week, reports surfaced that over 35 per cent of units in the Vancouver House condominium development have been sold to foreigners. Developers are even going as far to advertise Vancouver real estate developments overseas, such as the\u00a0Vancouver House ad<\/a>spotted last fall in Taipei. And on Tuesday, Vancity Buzz reported a\u00a0Shaughnessy mansion just sold<\/a>\u00a0for $2 million over its $5.99 million asking price.<\/span><\/p>\n The Vancouverites for Affordable Housing organization is now planning an\u00a0Affordable Housing Rally<\/a>\u00a0to take place on Sunday, May 24 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.vancitybuzz.com\/2015\/05\/petition-restrict-foreign-ownership-vancouver\/\u00a0BY\u00a0JILL SLATTERY<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vancouver housing prices have been growing at an alarming rate for the past few years, and now finally, residents are getting fed up with the lack of action from political … [read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dinani.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}