Nine out of 10 Vancouver houses now worth more than C$1 mln-study

By Julie Gordon
VANCOUVER, June 17 (Reuters) - More than 90 percent of all
detached homes in Vancouver are now worth more than C$1 million
($772,141), up from just 19 percent a decade ago, a new study by
a local urban planner has found, showing how rapidly housing
prices have escalated in the Canadian city.
The biggest jump came in the last two years, with the
proportion of million-dollar homes in the city climbing to 91
percent in 2016 from just 59 percent in 2014, according to the
study by Andy Yan, acting director of Simon Fraser University's
City Program.
"This shows how what used to be the earnest product of a
lifetime of local work is perhaps quickly becoming a leveraged
and luxurious global commodity," said Yan.
The median household income in Vancouver, meanwhile, rose
just 8.6 percent between 2009 to 2013, according to the most
recent data from Statistics Canada. Adjusted for inflation, it
would be about C$77,000 a year in 2016.
That puts typical incomes well below the threshold needed to
purchase million-dollar homes, said Yan, noting other factors
must be driving the sharp increase in home values in Vancouver.
"It's global cash, meeting cheap money, meeting limited
supply," he said, adding that all three factors are working to
"magnify each other" and drive further speculation.
Foreign investment has long been blamed for soaring housing
prices in Vancouver, with the most recent wave of offshore cash
coming mostly from mainland China.
A widespread corruption crackdown launched by Chinese
president Xi Jinping in late 2012 has led to massive currency
outflows, which have coincided with a sharp jump in housing
prices in Vancouver's prime neighborhoods.
The new data comes as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
is in Vancouver for a two-day visit. Trudeau on Thursday said
that his government needs to take measures to ensure residents
of cities like Vancouver and Toronto can afford housing.

Yan's study looked at provincial assessment data, which lags
sales data by several months, and was focused exclusively on the
roughly 67,000 detached homes in the City of Vancouver. All
values were adjusted for inflation.
Region-wide, the price of a detached home soared 130 percent
over the last 10 years to hit C$1.5 million in May, according to
the local real estate board. Adding in apartments and townhomes,
the typical home in Greater Vancouver now costs C$889,100.
($1 = 1.2951 Canadian dollars)