ROHANA REZEL Science, technology, politics and dance

All the candidates are talking about “tackling speculation”, but what exactly is the state of speculation in our market right now?

Here’s a map of single family homes that came on the market in the last 12 months that were bought in the three years prior.

I have been tracking the market for the last two years. What I’ve observed, backed by my data, is that the nature of speculation has changed greatly due to the softening market. Speculators are no longer in it for the quick flips. Instead, they’re primary focusing on landbanking: buying properties they suspect would be rezoned in the near future, holding them until the City of Vancouver announced the rezoning, and then sell them for exorbitant profits.

Vision Vancouver donor Ceetu appears to have gotten lucky twice with their picks.

We need stop landbankers from artificially driving up land prices, and then free up the land they’re holding onto to build more affordable housing. Rental-only zoning along transit corridors would’ve cut out all the speculation we see in areas that fall under Cambie Corridor Plan. As a new step, the city needs to work with the province to introduce a landbanking tax that makes landbanking an unprofitable venture.