The red-hot real estate market is Metro Vancouver’s regional obsession. Residents camp out for weeks to get a chance to buy a new condo, bidding wars drive prices to thousands - even millions - above asking, and the collective freak-out about foreign investment has led to petitions, proposals for new restrictions and taxes, and, so far, precious little change.
With all this as a backdrop, it’s little wonder that a pair of new reality tv shows have turned Vancouver housing - quite literally - into a spectator sport.
“Million-dollar Agent” and “House My Style” are a pair of new series that focus on realtors and Chinese buyers in Metro Vancouver’s luxury market.
Kevin K. Li is the producer of the reality series “Ultra Rich Asian Girls of Vancouver” and the new show “House My Style,” which puts a pair of real estate agents through a series of challenges to teach them about Vancouver’s housing market.
For Li, this type of programming feeds a natural curiosity about the unattainable lifestyles of the fabulously wealthy.
“Some of my favourite shows growing up were ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ and ‘Cribs’ on MTV,” Li said. “The way I see it is that people watch TV just to live vicariously for half an hour through somebody else’s eyes. So I think anybody that’s interested in knowing this sort of high lifestyle - this luxe lifestyle - they would tune in and have a look to see what that’s like.”
“Million-dollar Agent” - a rough translation of the show’s Mandarin name - is even more in this vein of entertainment. The show follows realtor Chris Lee, who told CTV News he deals primarily with luxury properties and buyers from China.
Right now, the show exists only as a series of clips posted on YouTube, but Lee said he has shot four seasons of 10 six-minute episodes each. He said the finished product will air on television in China, and continue to be posted online.
“Our main focus is to show the listings, show the realtor’s life, and show the city,” Lee said.
The hope is that, in doing so, he’ll also be able to make some more sales, specifically to wealthy people from outside of Vancouver who may not have ever considered buying in the city.
If Lee is successful in doing so, he’ll hardly be the first. A recent report from Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy places blame for Metro Vancouver’s skyrocketing real estate prices squarely on the shoulders of foreign buyers - and the reluctance of the federal and provincial governments to step in and limit foreign investment.
“There are lots of people around the world for whom Vancouver’s real estate is an incredible deal,” said David Eby, MLA for Vancouver Point Grey and B.C. NDP spokesman for housing issues. “It’s a great place to bring money. It’s a great place to invest in real estate, and the problem is it comes at a huge cost to the people that live here, where now the cost of housing has absolutely no connection to the amount of money you can earn here in Metro Vancouver.”
Eby said he doesn’t blame real estate agents like Lee for “wanting a piece of the action,” though he does want the Real Estate Council of B.C. to adopt stricter advertising standards.
The bigger problem, Eby said, is government’s failure to tax the foreign money that’s coming into Vancouver’s housing market.
That money is likely to keep flowing into the region as long as it remains a desirable place to own property and an affordable place to invest.
“Compared to Singapore or London or New York or San Francisco, Vancouver - in the world market - is still a deal,” Li said.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Sarah MacDonald
