Architect and real-estate consultant Michael Geller will share a stack of newspaper clippings in May 10 presentation at SFU Vancouver

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For 30 years, Vancouver architect Michael Geller has collected newspaper clippings related to housing, real estate, and housing affordability.

This Thursday (May 10), Geller will share his stack of newspaper clippings in a presentation at SFU Vancouver. “To show that so many of the issues we are concerned about today were precisely the issues that we were concerned about over the past 30 years,” he said in a telephone interview.

Geller told the Straight that a lot of headlines that people are reading in newspapers today could have been written at several previous points in Vancouver’s history. For example, Geller noted that Vancouver residents have repeatedly blamed foreign nationals for challenges of housing affordability.

“I want to point out to all those people who really think this is just about foreign investors and dirty money, that it is not just about foreign investors and dirty money,” he said. “It is much more complicated.

“I have a number of newspaper clippings related to foreign buyers, particularly from the 1980s,” Geller continued. “Recently, much attention was given to this innovation that we should have a Vancouver-first policy, where residents of the city should have first choice when condominium projects go on sale. I’ll be sharing Vancouver Sun stories describing exactly the same thing from 1988.”

Geller, a real-estate consultant and adjunct faculty member of SFU's Centre for Sustainable Development, emphasized he is not suggesting that foreign money plays no role in B.C.’s real-estate markets. “I don’t want to diminish its significance,” he explained. “But too many people think it is the main consideration. And it isn’t. The main consideration, in my mind, is the imbalance between demand and the right kind of supply.”

That said, Geller emphasized his talk is not intended as a debate on the foreign-buyers issue, but will be a history lesson.

“The problems we have today have developed over 30 years, and we are not going to be able to solve them simply by imposing a few taxes or by rezoning single-family neighbourhoods,” he said.

The event is titled “Looking Back, Looking Forward: Reflections on Housing Metro Vancouver”. It’s scheduled for this Thursday (May 10), beginning at 7 p.m. at SFU Vancouver (Harbour Centre campus) at 515 West Hastings Street.