I was reading an interesting article on the CTVnews.ca website. Basically it spelled out that it is too late for me to get into the Vancouver housing market. The article states that in Vancouver it takes 9.1 times the average income to buy a home. Making it the most expensive place in Canada to do so. I would have to be making 100,000 a year just to attempt to own here. I assure you I don’t.
‘Metro Vancouver has the highest rate of “forced” moves – that is, evictions and foreclosures.’ Data from Stats Canada. That is a scary excerpt from the article. This is exactly what we are facing from Reliance as they move to forcibly evict us from our home or raise our rents by 90%. It would add $1100/month to our housing costs and become nearly the same housing payment people I know are making on a mortgage.
After 20 years of loyal tenancy in a Reliance building once located at 1170 Bidwell we have paid our landlord almost $300,000. Had my husband and I bought into Vancouver back then we would be most of the way to having purchased a home. Instead we gave them money to Reliance Properties Vancouver and in doing so helped make them into the billion dollar real estate corporation they are today. Our reward for that loyalty is the slap in the face Jon Stovell is giving us now, the “forced” moves/eviction noted above.
As property developers move to snap up all the available land in Vancouver to make outrageously expensive condos or rentals it is little wonder that Vancouver is getting hollowed out. Vancouver for the 4 times in as many years has been ranked as one of the least affordable cities in the world, #2 in fact. That is not something we should be proud of or find sustainable.
Reliance is not reliable unlike their name and is looking after only their bottom dollar. If you are going to displace tenants due to renovations, do the right thing and relocate those tenants that don’t take the buy out by putting them into your other buildings with vacancies at the same rent during these renos and allow them the opportunity to come back at a negotiated fare price. Maximum at CMHC rates if not the same.