Chinese Homebuyers Spreading Wealth Make Vancouver Pricier Than Manhattan

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Buyers from mainland China are leading a wave of Asian investment in Vancouver real estate as China tries to damp property speculation at home. Good schools, a marine climate and the large, established Asian community as a result of Canada’s liberal immigration policy make Vancouver attractive, said Cathy Gong, who moved from Shanghai to the Shaughnessy neighborhood on Vancouver’s Westside about three years ago.

“The schools here are the best and there are a lot of Chinese people here,” said Gong, whose son is in sixth grade at Shaughnessy Elementary School.

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“As the Chinese get more and more prosperous, they are diversifying their assets out of China,” said Jim Rogers, an American investor who moved to Singapore from New York four years ago so his daughters could learn Chinese. “Vancouver is very high on the list.”

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In 2010, Vancouver had the third-highest housing costs among English-speaking cities worldwide, according to Canada’s Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Only Hong Kong and Sydney, another magnet of Asian immigration, were more expensive. Vancouver’s median home price of C$602,000 ($618,000) was 9.5 times the annual median household income of C$63,100, the group said in a study released Jan. 24. Canada had a 4.6 national multiple, making it “seriously unaffordable,” while the U.S. at 3.3 was “moderately unaffordable,” the study showed. To be affordable, the multiple must be 3 or less.

Vancouver was more expensive than San Francisco, London and New York by that measure.

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Unlike London or New York, “we don’t have enough jobs with high incomes to justify” the home prices, said [former Vancouver city councillor] Ladner.

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It’s not just the Chinese who are shopping for homes, said Gradecak. Korean and Taiwanese buyers also have been active, he said.

“Foreign investment in Vancouver residential real estate is showing no signs of slowing,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist of the Ottawa-based Canadian Real Estate Association, in a May 9 report.

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“Canada is a very attractive country these days for many reasons,” said Rogers, the investor. “They’ve done a much better job than the U.S. has over the last 15 to 20 years.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-16/chinese-spreading-wealth-make-vancouver-homes-pricier-than-nyc.html

[justashooter 430]

canada does not extradite financial criminals to china, where such crime is a capital offense.

couple this with lax immigration statute, and you have over 20,000 people (recent count) living in canada (with their families) that are wanted for financial crimes in china. on their exodus, they took with them approximately 6 billion USD in currency gained by nefarious methods for which the normal penalty is a bullet in the back of the head. follow the money trail.