@SteveSaretsky
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Real Estate aficionado. Vancouver Realtor & investor. Host of The Loonie Hour podcast.
Vancouver, BC
Joined March 2010
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New condo sales in Metro Vancouver are tracking even lower than last year, like 50% lower. The pre-sale condo market is completely dead.
Steve Saretsky retweeted
We are pleased to announce the agenda for our Veritas 14th Annual Real Estate Conference on October 14.
Are We There Yet? Searching for a Bottom in an Unpredictable Market
9:00 - 9:15
Welcome: A Year in Review
Anthony Scilipoti, President and CEO, Veritas Group of Companies
9:15 - 9:55
The Main St vs. the Bay St Conundrum
Shalabh Garg, Senior Investment Analyst, Financial Services and REITs, Veritas Investment Research
Rebekah Young, Vice-President, Economic Policy, Scotiabank
9:55 - 10:35
The Price of Denial: What Is Canadian Commercial Real Estate Really Worth?
Jeffrey Berger, Managing Director, TDB Advisory
David Black, Head of Value and Risk Advisory, Canada, JLL Canada
Mario Lefebvre, Chief Economist for Canada, CoStar Group
10:50 - 11:20
From Crisis to Constraint: Canadian Housing Credit in a More Volatile World
Aled ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation
11:20 - 12:00
Build, Hold or Fold? - The Fight to Finance Condos and Purpose-built Rental Housing
Adrian Rocca. CEO & Founder, Fitzrovia Real Estate
Nick Stillo, Principal and COO, One Urban Developments
Sasha Cucuz, CEO, Greybrook Securities Inc. Partner, Greybrook Capital
Lunch
Inc1:00 - 2:00
Are We There Yet? Four Views from the Front Lines
Natalka Falcomer, Chief Real Estate Officer, Houseful, an RBC Company (moderator)
Daniel Foch, Chief Real Estate Officer, Valery.ca
Ron Butler, Mortgage Broker, Butler Mortgage Inc.
John Pasalis, President and Broker, Move Smartly Realty inc.
Steve Saretsky, Saretsky Group
2:00 - 2:30
The City To the Rescue? - Toronto's Experiment as a Public Real Estate Developer
Vic Gupta, CEO of CreateTO
2:45 - 3:25
Back to the Office. But Which Office? - A Fireside Chat on the Future of Canadian Office Real Estate
Alan MacKenzie, CEO JLL Canada
Jonathan Pearce, Senior Managing Director, Americas Leasing, Hines
3:25 - 4:10
Finding Bottom in Canada: A Look Back Over the Last 50 Years
Ira Gluskin, Chief Investment Officer of Irager + Associates Inc.
Jon Love, Executive Chairman and Founder of KingSett Capital
4:10 - 4:30
Wrap
Anthony Scilipoti, President and CEO, Veritas Group of Companies
Cocktails at The National Club afterwards.
We are almost at capacity for the National Club. If you plan to attend, please don't wait to RSVP.
veritascorp.com/events/real-…
@ASclipoti @JohnPasalis @ronmortgageguy @danielfoch @SteveSaretsky
Trust me, this time is different…
We don’t need a report to figure this out. High taxes chase away top talent in all industries.
High income tax rates hurt Canadian NHL teams by driving away top talent: report ctvnews.ca/sports/article/hi…
BC housing policy: Buy a second home? Speculator. Leave it empty? Vacancy tax. Sell within two years? Flipping tax. Keep it too long? Hoarder. Buy too nice a house? Luxury tax. Build new housing? Greedy developer.
Breaking: Newly found data shows greedy U.S. developers began hoarding completed homes in 2006, and hoarded twice as many by 2007.
Strange that they decided to get greedy right as buyers disappeared.
All they needed was the Eby unsold condo tax and we could've avoided the Global Financial Crisis. Can't believe policy makers never thought of that.
Eby also announces that he will double the existing empty homes tax on residential properties. Naturally, this tax disproportionately hits BC and Canadian citizens, not foreigners.
In other words, the beatings will continue until morale improves.
There are 8400 unsold new condo units in Metro Vancouver that are either under construciton or already complete. Every month they sit empty the developer pays interest, property taxes, insurance, and strata fees. Not to mention the opportunity cost of that capital.
You think they aren't trying to sell them?
Construction and inventory loans from any lender have legal stipulations that determine what a developer can sell for, typically with a 90-95% threshold of contracted prices.
An empty homes tax on new product would only tighten credit conditions further, and accelerate the rapid decline in housing starts.
Capital flows to where it is treated best, and the NDP have done a good job villainizing it in just about every industry.
Steve Saretsky retweeted
Premier Eby says BC home prices are falling faster than anywhere in Canada and rents have dropped 26 months straight. His answer is to raise the spec tax again and hit builders with an escalating "Unsold Condo Tax."
This is the same government that posted a record $13.3 billion deficit, raised income tax on the lowest bracket, expanded the PST, and is cutting 15,000 public service jobs to plug the hole. When a government runs out of money, every problem starts looking like a reason for a new tax.
Sir Winston Churchill is credited with the right response: a nation trying to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle.
His own numbers sink his so-called plan. In a falling market, nobody is hoarding condos to flip. Finished, unsold units are a builder's inventory, and builders want to sell them. They're unsold because the buyers have gone.
The "up to 5,000 homes" is a ceiling disguised as a promise. And those units already exist. Forcing them onto the market adds zero new supply. It just transfers the loss from the builder to the lender and tells both not to finance the next tower. Unlock 5,000 homes today, and you lose far more that never get built in 2029.
Some builders are holding units back waiting for prices to recover? Carrying costs already punish that. The tax can't tell a strategic hold from a failed sale, so it hits both.
B.C.’s spec tax just doubled this year, with another increase already legislated for 2027. There isn't a full year of data on the last hike, and he wants another one.
Blaming Trump's trade war while raising taxes on BC property doesn't lower anyone's costs. It’s another example of how fiscally inept Eby’s government truly is.
And "BC Strong" is the Liberals' "Canada Strong" with the province swapped in. Borrowed slogan, borrowed money, borrowed time. #bcpoli
Today in Burnaby I committed to turning more empty condos into homes people can afford.
Our housing plan is working. Home prices are falling faster in B.C. than anywhere else in Canada, rents have dropped 26 months in a row, and the speculation and vacancy tax has turned 20,000 empty units into homes. But too many finished condos are still sitting empty or unsold.
So we'll raise the speculation and vacancy tax by one point and bring in a new Unsold Condo Tax on finished condos left empty for more than a year, climbing every year they sit. That could unlock up to 5,000 homes for British Columbians.
The conservative parties have opposed nearly every measure we've taken on housing. They'd rip up the plan and hand the market back to the speculators.
With Trump's trade war driving up costs, we have to keep pushing yours down. That's how we build B.C. strong. 🇨🇦
Eby backing away from his condo bailout and hard pivots to a 2% "empty condo tax" on developers if new units sit vacant.
My jaw is on the floor. Not because he backed away from the condo bailout, but because instead he decided to nuke an industry already teetering on collapse.
I can’t think of a policy more destructive for the development industry than this. Forced liquidations into an already illiquid market.
Today in Burnaby I committed to turning more empty condos into homes people can afford.
Our housing plan is working. Home prices are falling faster in B.C. than anywhere else in Canada, rents have dropped 26 months in a row, and the speculation and vacancy tax has turned 20,000 empty units into homes. But too many finished condos are still sitting empty or unsold.
So we'll raise the speculation and vacancy tax by one point and bring in a new Unsold Condo Tax on finished condos left empty for more than a year, climbing every year they sit. That could unlock up to 5,000 homes for British Columbians.
The conservative parties have opposed nearly every measure we've taken on housing. They'd rip up the plan and hand the market back to the speculators.
With Trump's trade war driving up costs, we have to keep pushing yours down. That's how we build B.C. strong. 🇨🇦
Bulk purchases made up 30% of new condo sales in the second quarter. High Art secured a 20% discount on bulk condo buy.
I hate to say it but 20% isn’t enough.
The purchase by High Art Capital comes as developers grapple with a record stockpile of completed units and weak demand across the GTA. thestar.com/real-estate/high…
Canada's population increased by 0.5% over the past year, marking the slowest pace of growth since World War 1. Population rose by about 189,000 people which marked the smallest percentage change since 1915-16.
Very bearish for the rental market.
A $13.8B record deficit, and the NDP’s big idea is a snap election to extend their run by 2 years. They already have a majority. This is a gift to the people of BC to make a judgment call on their performance.
Steve Saretsky retweeted
👀 The federal government is offering all 129 First Nations along the Trans Mountain pipeline route a combined 15-per-cent equity stake and a $2.5-million lump-sum payment for each group that agrees to invest.
theglobeandmail.com/politics…
Rate hike incoming
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said policymakers don't want to be late to hike interest rates should inflationary pressures prove more stubborn bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Nobody better than @RobShaw_BC covering BC politics right now. Give this man a follow and thank me later.
Haven't met a home seller that doesn't think their house is better than the neighbours and wants to try their price. Biggest mistake today is just chasing the market lower, always a step behind.
Steve Saretsky retweeted
Attention Ottawa!
"Loonie Hour Investor series w/ Ben Rabidoux, Oct 13th"
Come hang out with the Amigos, participate in thoughtful discussions, and make a few new friends.
eventbrite.com/e/ottawa-the-… @eventbritehelp
@RichardDias_CFA @SteveSaretsky @BenRabidoux
