Roundup: Rising home prices in Vancouver draw varying responses

The price to own a house in Canada's most liveable city of Vancouver has climbed again to a new high, drawing varying responses from people in different walks of life in society.

According to annual assessment report published recently by the Property Assessment Office of British Columbia (B.C.) in west Canada, the average value in the latest assessment for single-family detached houses increased 11 percent year-over-year in the City of Vancouver.

Of the 100 most expensive B.C. residential properties, 95 are located either in the City of Vancouver or in the ritzy district of West Vancouver, the report indicated

A typical detached home on a 15-meter-wide lot on Vancouver's pricy west side was valued at 1.8 million Canadian dollars (1.5 million U.S. dollars) in the assessment - a 12.5 percent increase from last year. On the city's working class east side, a typical detached home was valued at 993,000 Canadian dollars (837,000 U.S. dollars) - an 11.3 percent gain over 2013.

On the impact of rising home prices on ordinary residents in the city, Dan Scarrow, manager of Macdonald Real Estate Group, said most people would agree that it was a good thing.

"When most people see their assessment here in January, people that own their homes are going to feel wealthier and that's going to reverberate through the economy. People are going to spend more, they're going to feel more confident about their personal circumstances, so they're going to be out there contributing to our economic circumstances here."

Scarrow also pointed out that a steady supply of local and Asian homebuyers, combined with a stable B.C. economy, has helped stoke the city's overall housing market, and he didn't expect home prices to drop in the coming year.

"I think throughout Vancouver, throughout a lot of the suburban areas, it's going to be a strong year. Not as crazy as what we saw in 2011, which was our strongest year for a long time, but it's been sort of steady pace since then and I think we're going to continue seeing that, moving forward," Scarrow said.

However, not everyone in the city is happy about the rise of the house value, as the City of Vancouver uses the annual assessment values to determine its property tax rate. Residents have to pay more property tax as their property prices rise.

City councilor and acting mayor Raymond Louie told Xinhua that home owners could be pleased that their property values were going up, but for a renter, or somebody trying to enter into the market, it became even more challenging.

Louie said more than 50 percent of Vancouver residents are renters and Vancouver's government has been trying to spur the creation of more diverse housing options by encouraging more dense development along the city's mass-transit network.

Since 2004, the city has also made it easier for owners of detached homes to build rental suites and erect laneway houses to accommodate more renters. But Louie added that roughly 170,000 new residents are expected to move to the city by 2041, putting even more pressure on a limited housing supply.

"For the longest time, the federal government and the provincial government haven't been creating the programs necessary to accommodate the people in our country, and that's why we've been advocating very strongly to the provincial and federal government for a national housing strategy. We need to address this housing shortage issue. Otherwise, it will turn out just as the Bank of Canada has stated - It's the Number One threat to our economy. We don't have the space for people to live in our cities," he added. Endi