Is it just me or has the real estate market become more volatile in recent times? That and the economy over all. I can only imagine how much worse it much be in other nations. America is often less volatile as the world's largest economy, but I know Europe is still stuck with negative interest rates and didn't manage to raise them into positive territory this expansion.
I think describing this just as volatility somewhat misses the fact that this is the new rules and taxes in Vancouver working as designed. The steep tax on empty properties was explicitly intended to bring down house prices and reduce rents / increase vacancy rates and it seems like it is actually working, although I've also heard it's become more difficult for potential buyers to get their money out of China recently which may also be a contributing factor.
Apologies for being unclear; I'm referring to the broader real-estate market. I can't speak to Canada, but I seem to see this in America (increased volatility) in real estate and the broader economy over all.
I live in a US region with essentially no population growth, slow job and wage growth, and a lot of vacant buildings and land.
Since the financial crisis ended, real estate price records are broken every year and see neighborhoods that have double through quadrupled in the past 15 years.
At the same time new apartments have gone up, big property companies have formed and consolidated a lot of multi-unit buildings previously owned by small time owners.
I know interest rates, especially on mortgages, were historically low which caused some inflation. But it honestly baffles me how it could be anything but a bubble.
It's an extreme expansionary policy designed to keep the economy afloat by making people pay money to keep it in banks. Normally this is done by dropping interest rates below inflation; this is the nuclear option for economies. The fact that they are still stuck on this is not a good sign for what may happen to Europe next recession.
This is one of the inherent limitations of a shared currency: Greece needs expansion; Germany needs contraction. Help one; harm the other. It's very difficult to do the kind of things America (or most other nations) can do with Europe for this reason.
The rate at which the bank gets money from the central bank is negative, and your local bank adds on 1.5 to that (for a variable) rate from what i remember, so overall the rate was 0.8% I think.
