MICHAEL SMYTH
Premier Clark finally shows concern for affordability
All of a sudden, Premier Christy Clark is flippin’ mad. For many months now, Clark’s government has been hesitant to intervene in the overheated Metro Vancouver real estate market.
It didn’t matter skyrocketing prices had put the dream of home ownership beyond the reach of non-millionaires.
It didn’t matter evidence was piling up showing foreign speculators, predominantly from Mainland China, were flooding Vancouver with offshore millions and distorting the housing market.
Clark ruled out anything — like an anti-speculation tax — that would reduce home values.
“That would be taking a bite out of the equity that people have already invested in their homes and we don’t want to do that,” she said last month.
But the hits just kept on coming: Evidence of organized crime using real estate megadeals to launder dirty money and now the outrageous practice of “shadow flipping” houses.
Shadow flipping involves multiple buyers flipping and reflipping multimillion-dollar homes before the deal actually closes on paper — an apparent effort to avoid paying taxes, while real estate agents line their pockets with lucrative commissions.
All of a sudden, the premier has seen enough.
“It’s crazy,” Clark said Wednesday following a throne speech that promised measures to make housing more affordable and increase the supply of new homes. “What we expressed today was a real concern for housing affordability,” Clark said. About time. The shadow flipping now will be investigated by the province’s superintendent of real estate and the Real Estate Council of B.C.
But wait: The council is responsible for licensing real estate agents, the very people accused of the dubious double-dealing.
The council received complaints about shadow flipping in the past and little was done.
Should the real estate industry now be trusted to investigate itself?
“They’re a self-governing profession, just like doctors or dentists,” Clark said.
“We’re giving them a chance to fix it themselves.”
But what if the industry doesn’t clean up its own mess?
“That trust only goes so far,” Clark said. “If they won’t fix it, we’re going to fix it for them.
“I don’t have a lot of patience on this issue. We want to see it get fixed quickly.”
Tough talk. But only after the media storm around the issue became too much to ignore.
We’ll see now if the talk is backed up by action.