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  #81  
Old Posted Mar 23, 2023, 3:23 PM
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suburbanite is fully correct (and some others too). It's unarguable that our addiction to real estate as a safe and reliable investment is harming our competitiveness, innovation, and general economy. I've actually witnessed many real life examples (all "small cuts" at the scale of the economy, yet still net harm). I'm even one myself: having been burned a couple times by business ventures that turned out to be not anywhere near as solid as the model of collecting rent from decently urban brick-and-mortar in an environment of continued Human QE / population Ponzi Scheme (there are billions of people in "shithole countries" who can potentially contribute to Justinflating rents here even more), I'm not participating too much in the economy anymore (proportionally). I know several others who are in the exact same situation. Basically, "spoiled" by real estate, so all other investments just sound unbearably risky; "uh, you could actually lose money with this!!!" is a deal-breaker.
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  #82  
Old Posted Mar 23, 2023, 5:20 PM
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Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
suburbanite is fully correct (and some others too). It's unarguable that our addiction to real estate as a safe and reliable investment is harming our competitiveness, innovation, and general economy. I've actually witnessed many real life examples (all "small cuts" at the scale of the economy, yet still net harm). I'm even one myself: having been burned a couple times by business ventures that turned out to be not anywhere near as solid as the model of collecting rent from decently urban brick-and-mortar in an environment of continued Human QE / population Ponzi Scheme (there are billions of people in "shithole countries" who can potentially contribute to Justinflating rents here even more), I'm not participating too much in the economy anymore (proportionally). I know several others who are in the exact same situation. Basically, "spoiled" by real estate, so all other investments just sound unbearably risky; "uh, you could actually lose money with this!!!" is a deal-breaker.
Another fun question. How many people do you employ in the managing of your real estate portfolio compared to the other "real" business ventures (which I assume are smaller in overall enterprise value)?
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  #83  
Old Posted Mar 23, 2023, 7:01 PM
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That's an unrealistically high standard for calling something a vacation, IMO

Don't worry so much for me. If I ever feel like I need a Wigs-style vacation, I'll take one
Like the Trooper song "We're here for a good time, not a long time..."

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  #84  
Old Posted Mar 23, 2023, 7:06 PM
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Unlike Lio, Ebenezer didn't even pay people to take care of his geriatric arse.
Lio is more like Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber "Monty" Burns

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  #85  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2023, 7:35 PM
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If politicians think we're in a "housing crisis" why do we even allow AirBnB?

'This is a very serious issue': Growing concerns over illegal Airbnb listings flooding the Vancouver market
Kevin Charach
CTV News Vancouver Multi-Media Journalist
Published July 24, 2023 6:58 p.m. PDT

City Councillor Lenny Zhou says he's working with staff to figure out just how many illegal short-term rental units are operating in Vancouver.

"Some people are actually not using their principal residence, (they're) using their investment unit as a short-term rental. That's not right," Zhou told CTV News. "This is a very serious issue. For one, our city is experiencing a housing crisis and some people are taking advantage of the system and trying to make some money using some illegal short-term rental."

Under City of Vancouver regulations, you need a valid business licence to operate a short-term rental, and it’s illegal to operate a short-term rental that isn’t your principal residence.

According to city staff, there are 4,084 active listings for short-term rentals in Vancouver. So far in 2023, 132 licenses have been suspended, 120 violation tickets were issued and 54 units were flagged for investigations and audits.

The current fine is $1,000 per violation, the maximum allowed under provincial law. Zhou believes that needs to change.

"This is too low," said Zhou. "For short-term rentals you could probably make up the money in 2-3 days."

Zhou couldn't provide an estimate of how many illegal units are operating, but says his research has returned some eye-opening figures.

“There was one strata building – so they have 233 units, but what they told me is they have 30 illegal short-term rentals in one building. That’s more than 10 per cent,” said Zhou, adding they're still verifying those numbers....


https://bc.ctvnews.ca/this-is-a-very...source=twitter
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  #86  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2023, 8:03 PM
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What I don't get is why municipal authorities don't hang a team tracking STR violations full time. They could pay for themselves many times over.
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  #87  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2023, 8:39 PM
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What I don't get is why municipal authorities don't hang a team tracking STR violations full time. They could pay for themselves many times over.
Agree 100%. Vancouver has very reasonable STR rules on paper. Then they hand out licenses like candy and there is zero enforcement.
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  #88  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2023, 10:52 PM
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An interesting Airbnb in Calgary. I'd stay there.

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/soccer-ball-house-calgary





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  #89  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 3:26 AM
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Quebec is forcing Airbnb to remove all listings not specifically authorized by the province.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...ment-1.6789949

Why can't other provinces do this?
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  #90  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 5:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Truenorth00 View Post
Quebec is forcing Airbnb to remove all listings not specifically authorized by the province.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...ment-1.6789949

Why can't other provinces do this?
Good on Quebec! Hopefully this puts pressure on other provinces to do the same.
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  #91  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 5:40 PM
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Originally Posted by Truenorth00 View Post
Quebec is forcing Airbnb to remove all listings not specifically authorized by the province.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...ment-1.6789949

Why can't other provinces do this?
Not sure how much it’s been in the news but as an “industry insider”, I can confirm that the Legault government basically took Airbnb’s Quebec operations behind the shed and put a bullet in its head. (In reaction to several burned cadavers. We’re a very reactive culture here; takes a major disaster for any change to get implemented.).

Airbnb has basically ceased to exist in this province; it’s like we’re back in 2005.
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  #92  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 6:09 PM
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Originally Posted by lio45 View Post
Not sure how much it’s been in the news but as an “industry insider”, I can confirm that the Legault government basically took Airbnb’s Quebec operations behind the shed and put a bullet in its head. (In reaction to several burned cadavers. We’re a very reactive culture here; takes a major disaster for any change to get implemented.).

Airbnb has basically ceased to exist in this province; it’s like we’re back in 2005.
Really? we recently rented a chalet and there seemed to be lots of listings still. But it wasn't too long after the old mtl fire, maybe it's declined a lot in the few weeks-months since.

Or did you mean in the sense of AirBnB corporate retaliating by pulling jobs out of Quebec? I seem to remember they had a decently sized presence here after buying out some local niche player (I think Luxury Retreats?)
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  #93  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 7:08 PM
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Really? we recently rented a chalet and there seemed to be lots of listings still. But it wasn't too long after the old mtl fire, maybe it's declined a lot in the few weeks-months since.

Or did you mean in the sense of AirBnB corporate retaliating by pulling jobs out of Quebec? I seem to remember they had a decently sized presence here after buying out some local niche player (I think Luxury Retreats?)
It fell off a cliff overnight on the exact day Airbnb finally started to comply with the new rules (and purged like 90% of their ads), which IIRC was somewhere in the spring, a little while after the Old Mtl fire -- which was the trigger, but the direct effect wasn't implemented immediately.

Everyone I know who used to Airbnb their rental buildings has stopped, overnight. They tell me it's basically over for Airbnb here (and have reverted to other types of rental, month to month or yearly, outside Airbnb's platform).

So, yep, if there's a will, it can happen.

Airbnb still lives in Quebec as a platform that allows individual owners to rent their own residence on the occasions they're away, but it ceased to exist as a means for landlords to get more income from rental properties.
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  #94  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 7:13 PM
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Airbnb still lives in Quebec as a platform that allows individual owners to rent their own residence on the occasions they're away, but it ceased to exist as a means for landlords to get more income from rental properties.
It would be pretty easy to say that only primary residences can be listed on Airbnb.

So a Canadian family born in and living in China would only be able to rent out, say, a sensible $80M of Vancouver real estate. One mansion for the husband, one for the estranged homemaker, one for each student child, etc.
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  #95  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 7:26 PM
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It would be pretty easy to say that only primary residences can be listed on Airbnb.

So a Canadian family born in and living in China would only be able to rent out, say, a sensible $80M of Vancouver real estate. One mansion for the husband, one for the estranged homemaker, one for each student child, etc.
Quebec is actually very aggressive with the rules, it wouldn't work. To list a Quebec property on Airbnb, you need a certificate from the municipality in which the property is located, and to get that, you need to show docs proving that you actually live there. Also a cap could easily be set: if you rent it on Airbnb more than half the time, clearly you're a fraud, as it cannot be your "primary" residence -- you're not there "most of the time".

I'm not surprised by your reaction because here in Canada we're usually pretty stupid about enforcing our in-spirit rules ("as an unemployed homemaker who gets the GST credits and reports $0 in yearly income, I'm selling this mansion right after switching my personal mail to getting sent there for 366 days in a row and pocketing several million entirely tax free", etc.), but in the case of Airbnb in Quebec, the provincial government is very serious about it and they actually have an army of inspectors that check everything, and fines are high enough that it's absolutely not worth it.

As others said earlier, if governments want to be serious about this, it's easy: just set really high fines, and no landlords will be Airbnb'ing anything anymore. Quebec just demonstrated it. QED
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  #96  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 7:39 PM
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Caring about fixing an issue and seeing it as an opportunity to collect political points are often two separate things. If you don't care or don't want something fixed then it's often best to implement a rule with a loophole and claim the problem is fixed. This is particularly true when fixing the problem would come with some personal or political cost.

One factor here is probably the media who often cover things superficially (regurgitating legal changes is easy while fully investigating the impact is hard) and sometimes operate as mouthpieces for one party or another.
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  #97  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2023, 9:18 PM
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An interesting Airbnb in Calgary. I'd stay there.

https://dailyhive.com/calgary/soccer-ball-house-calgary





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  #98  
Old Posted Aug 2, 2023, 6:51 PM
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Some details on the AirBnB cancer in Vancouver. Funny how the foreign money and AirBnB come together to screw those Canadians looking for housing:

Vancouver short-term rentals have become 'mini-hotel' businesses, critic says
One listing mentions two "mortgage-helpers," which the agent quietly touts as bringing over $19,000 a month in revenue as short-term rentals
Author of the article: Joanne Lee-Young
Published Aug 02, 2023

On West 28th Avenue in the Riley Park area of Vancouver, a laneway house and basement suite are marketed as short-term rentals on Booking.com.

The entire 3,600-square-foot property, including the main house, is for sale, asking price $5.388 million.

The listing describes the one-bedroom laneway house and the three-bedroom basement suite as “mortgage helpers,” and when visitors tour the property, the agent quietly touts the two as bringing over $19,000 a month in revenue as short-term rentals....

...Visitors to a recent showing of the West 28th property with the laneway house and basement suite pointed out the listing to Postmedia, as well as the stark contrast between the revenue potential of this property, at $19,000 a month, and that of a nearby laneway house geared toward long-term tenants, at $3,650 a month, plus utilities.

Layla Yang of Dracco Pacific Realty said the $5.388 million asking price of the West 28th property was based on comparable sales that took into consideration its location, its newer condition and ability to generate high income.

She described the owner of the property as a single parent who has been using the proceeds from the short-term rentals to raise her family...(bold mine)


https://vancouversun.com/business/re...inesses-critic
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  #99  
Old Posted Sep 22, 2023, 12:40 PM
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I'm pretty new to this forum, but I couldn't resist jumping into this discussion. Reading all your thoughts on the Airbnb debate is quite enlightening! I totally get where Suburbanite is coming from. Real estate has long been seen as a "safe bet" for investments, but it's true that this can have consequences for our economy and innovation.
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  #100  
Old Posted Sep 22, 2023, 12:40 PM
AronGlower AronGlower is offline
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I've seen friends and even experienced it myself – getting a bit "spoiled" by the idea of steady rental income from urban properties. But let me tell you, there's a whole world out there beyond real estate. I used to be in a similar boat, hesitant to explore other investment opportunities. Then, I decided to take a leap and check out some alternatives. Speaking of alternatives, if you ever find yourself in Amsterdam, you should definitely explore the city's best hotels and accommodations. Trust me; it's a whole new experience! The best hotels in Amsterdam offer a unique blend of culture, comfort, and adventure. It's a fantastic way to diversify your investments, in a sense – investing in memorable experiences rather than just brick-and-mortar.
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