IUOE News Fall 2013

District One
What’s really behind
the high rise condo
boom?
Craig McIntosh,
Member Representative
There are as many tower cranes up in the Lower Mainland
now as there were during the Olympic boom prior to the
recession that hit us late in 2008. The majority of these tower
cranes are on high rise condo sites.
The main driver of condo sales is international investors,
most from Mainland China, who buy them and then allow
them to sit empty. In fact, some realtors
estimate that Mainland Chinese buyers
make up 80 per cent of the condo sales
in downtown and west side Vancouver.
So what is wrong with this picture? We’ve got many
members digging the excavations and putting in services to
these sites, as well as crane operators and concrete pump
operators working on these sites.
The problem is the Chinese economy is faltering and the
wealthy international buyers are drying up. Meanwhile, our
members and our kids who work on these condo sites in
Vancouver cannot afford to buy these units.
In late 2008 Vancouver condo market prices dropped 36
per cent over a six month period, then recovered over the next
24 months. By 2011 prices were back to all-time highs, which
6 News October 2013
“Realtors estimate that Mainland
Chinese buyers make up 80 per
cent of downtown condo sales”
has brought on the ‘high rise condo boom’ we are experiencing
now. But when the Chinese property bubble pops (which
experts say may happen within the next year), and we are
flooded with an excessive amount of inventory built since
2011, prices are likely to drop to 2008-2009 prices.
This would be good news for many first time buyers trying
to get into the housing market, but bad news for the construction
jobs that would be lost while the market once again takes
a few wears to correct itself. Let’s just hope that the Vancouver
condo market has the foresight to smooth the impact of the
bubble somehow and keep our construction crews busy
through whatever ups and downs lay ahead.
After 24 years of talking about it, Skytrain’s Evergreen Line
is being extended from Lougheed Mall in Burnaby to
Coquitlam Town Centre. Construction started ramping up in
July with a number of our contractors and members picking
up work on the Evergreen line.
This $1.4 billion project will take
approximately three years to construct,
and with it many new developments
will be built along the line at each Skytrain station, as has
happened (and is still happening) along the existing Skytrain
lines.
In closing, please remember to keep the Union informed of
your current contact information. Too often we get mail sent
back to us marked “return to sender, wrong address”, or
Dispatch phones a member about a job only to hear “the
number you have called is not in service”.
Don’t let a simple admin issue stop you from potentially
landing your dream job!
Work safe.
Mainland Sand & Gravel
crew Brothers Rick Osborne,
Dave Block, John Townley,
James Mather, Glen Wanek,
and Quentin Mather.
Brothers Dean Hanna and
Patrick Belanger between
two loaders.