WEDNESDAY
March 11 2015 Vol. 106 No. 19
URBAN SENIOR 12
Hockey Night in Cuba THEATRE 20
Whipping Man leaves markk SPORTS 22
B.C. girls on the hardwood There’s more online at
vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908
Buying through the Bank of Mom and Dad
Home buyers seek help from parents Jen St. Denis
jstdenis@biv.com
If you live in Vancouver, are under the age of 40 and have your heart set on living in a detached house, you’re more likely than anywhere else in the country to turn to your parents for help. At least, that’s the best educated guess from observers of this city’s real estate market. Like the controversial issue of foreign ownership, there is no data available on the phenomenon. “The combination of very, very high house prices means that you have generations, whether it’s parents or the grandparents, who have a whole bunch of house equity,” said Tsur Somerville, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. “You’ve got kids for whom it is, given the incomes here, difficult to [save].” In 2012, Vancouver’s median income was $71,140, according to Statistics Canada. Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal all had higher median incomes. Chris Catliff, CEO of BlueShore Financial in North Vancouver, said his credit
union has seen an increase in the number of parents who want to use the equity in their houses to help their children buy into a detached-home neighbourhood. According to Catliff, the trend is linked to an increase in wealthy immigrant buyers who are buying homes as an investment, which has helped push prices up. Meanwhile, homeowners over the age of 55 who purchased homes in the 1970s or ’80s have seen a steep rise in their home equity. They are now increasingly using that equity to help their children buy a house, Catliff said. “The desire of parents is often to get their children and grandchildren into [detached-home] neighbourhoods, with great schools, and near them,” he said. Paul Eviston, a realtor who specializes in East Vancouver, said he has seen more parents helping children buy real estate over the past two years. Houses on the city’s traditionally lower-priced East Side are now regularly listed at over $1 million. “If you think about it now, to get into a reasonable detached home on a full city lot, your price point is about $1.3 million,” Eviston said. Continued on page 7
No vote punishes the young
Rising generation most to lose if plebiscite fails OPINION Jessica Barrett
Jessica.Barrett@gmail.com
HANGER ON Aerial silk performer Julia Siedlanowska poured drinks for participants of both the Hush Wedding Soiree and the Groom Show this past Saturday at Terminal City Club. See story on page 8. PHOTO REBECCA BLISSETT
There are many things a young urbanite considers when choosing your preferred location in neighbourhood-centric Vancouver. First, you need to determine where you fit on the east-west continuum, or decide if you prefer the downtown peninsula. Then, you need to weigh your lifestyle priorities in terms of easy beach access, cheap rent or local amenities. But no matter where you choose to settle, you think about your proximity to transit. Yes, this is another column about that. Because in the debate leading up to next week’s referendum, I’ve been utterly unsurprised to hear the knee-jerk hue and cry coming from Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation about the proposed 0.5 per cent sales tax surcharge. And I expected a certain amount of indignation from suburban motorists who incorrectly believe public transit doesn’t benefit them. But I have been surprised to hear a cer-
tain amount of protestation from young, urban professionals who avail themselves of the walkable, livable, human-scaled lifestyle made possible by a healthy public transit system. I mean, I get it. When our transit authority is paying not one, but two CEOs in a month what many 20 and 30-somethings are struggling to earn in a year, it is galling to be asked to pay more for a service that already takes a big bite out of your budget. It is also tempting to view a no vote as a means by which to punish provincial governments, past and present, for the short-sighted decisions made mostly by members of a generation reared in the era of the automobile — and with the outdated values that went along with it. But a no vote won’t punish them. It will only punish us. For those with decades still to go before hitting middle age are surely among the groups with the most to lose — or gain — from the outcome of this vote. Consider the growth projections for Metro Vancouver that predict an additional one million people will move to the region by 2040. Continued on page 9