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Gordon Hoekstra, The Province, Oct 30, 2016

On Dec. 3, 2013, Vancouver city staff updated city council on a plan to prepare for a major earthquake.

Council asked for the report in 2011, after deadly earthquakes in New Zealand, where 185 people were killed, and in Japan, where the death toll from the ensuing tsunami was more than 16,000.

Under the update, the city was to establish a technical committee to advise it how to reduce the risk of private buildings collapsing or being badly damaged in an earthquake.

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Rudy Nielsen, The Scrivener, Fall 2016

Back in 2010, I let you know how the provincial land title system guards British Columbians against the ever‑present threat of mortgage fraud.

Today, this is still a timely topic, given the unprecedented level of property sales since then.

Through the Torrens Land Registration System, British Columbia is neatly packaged into about 1.9 million active land titles that have been very active in the past 5 years.

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Jane Seyd , North Shore News, Sept 22, 2016

Figures released by the province on Thursday appear to confirm what many local Realtors already knew – that interest from foreign buyers in the real estate market has fallen significantly since the province imposed a 15 per cent tax on deals involving foreign citizens.

According to data released by the government, real estate transactions involving foreign buyers made up about 13 per cent of the total number and 16 per cent of the total value changing hands between June 1 and Aug.

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Peter Mitham, Business in Vancouver, Sept 20, 2016

Tax crackdown

This year’s federal budget gives the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) extra clout when it comes to chasing down tax cheats, including those trying to evade taxes on real estate.

The topic surged into the national spotlight last week amid reports of lax oversight by the CRA and the practices of offshore investors seeking to sink money into local properties.

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Joanne Lee-Young, The Province, Sept 10, 2016

The crux of the Lower Mainland housing crisis supposedly hinges on the lack of supply and an insatiable demand for land that can be developed.

Municipalities insist they are hung up on a way to boost the supply of affordable housing, in part, because Metro Vancouver is so hemmed in by water, mountains and land designated for agricultural use.

And yet, 

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Our American friends in the Pacific Northwest may have caught Rudy Nielsen on their radio on Aug 6th. He was interviewed on America Outdoors Radio by John Kruse. They talked about the ins and outs of buying recreational land in British Columbia.

To listen to the interview, click here.

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Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun, July 26, 2016

Metro Vancouver mayors hope a new housing fund announced by Premier Christy Clark will be used to help resolve a “desperate need” for affordable housing across the region.

Clark announced Monday a 15-per-cent foreign buyer tax on all residential real estate deals in Metro Vancouver — from Bowen Island to Langley Township — starting Aug. 2. Revenue would go into a special housing fund for housing affordability projects,

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Rob Shaw, Vancouver Sun, July 25, 2016

VICTORIA — A foreign buyers tax introduced in a surprise move by the B.C. Liberal government Monday may cool the high end of Metro Vancouver’s red hot real estate market, even if it contains several potential loopholes and unintended consequences, say experts.

The new 15-per-cent foreign buyer tax will apply to residential real estate deals in Metro Vancouver — from Bowen Island to Maple Ridge/Langley Township — starting Aug.

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Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail, June 17, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to meet with a round table of experts on Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis on Friday, just as new data are released showing the extreme nature of the city’s escalating housing problem.

Planner and analyst Andy Yan, who will attend the meeting, has released a comprehensive set of maps that show the rapid rise of assessed house prices over the past decade.

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Frank O’Brien, Business in Vancouver, June 7, 2016

Rain and thousands of hectares of verdant farmland have sparked a new multimillion-dollar industry in the outback of northern British Columbia: harvesting hay and shipping it to drought-stricken livestock producers in China and Korea.

From a standing start four years ago, nearly 10,000 tonnes of hay per year is now being baled and shipped in containers to Asia out of the Port of Prince Rupert.

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