Many people worry about inflation eating away at their quality of life but I think profiteering has more of an effect.
The article in The Columbian on Oct. 28 announced the sale of two apartments complexes (“Two Vancouver apartments complexes sold for $59M”). The article mentions a sale that occurred earlier in the year of an apartment complex named The Pointe. This complex was purchased in 2019 for $68 million and sold in 2021 for $100 million. That is a $32 million profit in only two years. Who pays for that profit?
The answer is that the residents are on the hook for that excessive profit. I estimate that to pay for the extra $32 million, the rent would have to be increased by almost $350 per month per apartment (there are 387 apartments in this complex). That is probably an increase of 15 percent or more depending on what an average apartment rent was in 2021. How many of those residents received a 15 percent increase in pay during 2021? Probably close to zero.
Obviously some residents had to move, and they were replaced by residents that could accommodate the rent increase. However, to where did the people who could not afford the increase move and how many of the residents became homeless?
Without affordable places to live, homelessness will only get worse. Just look at Portland. Is that what the city planners want for Vancouver?
