Chuck Meagher

Politicians love to divert public attention from the real problems facing our society – especially ones that they had a hand in creating. 'Red Herrings' are always abundant in our BC rivers, and they are just as abundant in legislature. Case in point: The BC Government's recent implementation of the 15 % Foreign Buyer Tax. In a Saanich News column, Andrew Weaver, Oak Bay MLA, alludes to the true genesis of our housing crisis: “Frustration, anger, and outrage about housing in BC needs to land squarely with the BC Government for actively neglecting this issue until it became a crisis.” The founding chairman of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, John Bruk, puts it in perspective: “The primary responsibility for curbing this crisis lies with the provincial governments and municipalities that have taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the problem. When a similar problem arose in Singapore, its government introduced effective regulations in a bid to maintain affordable ho

As you know, I don’t usually do my prediction until January, but the market has moved so quickly beyond my predictions for 2015 and 2016, both of which were on the mark. I realize that what is now going on in the Victoria real estate market is not only unique, but is going to shock everyone. If you are looking to buy into the Victoria market—or elsewhere on Vancouver Island—the time to act is now. Although the prices on Vancouver Island have been strong for 2016, we have not even come close to a point where prices will level out. Almost all of the projects and developments we currently see coming out of the ground are selling out well before the roofs are on; what we need to understand is what the timeline was for these projects to become available. Everything you see coming out of the ground today is a result of land acquisitions of at least three years to five years ago, when land was much cheaper; then, the rezoning process took at least one to two years to get to the point