Real Estate Matchmaker Wants to Save Vancouver from Itself

Yet another installment of our inconsistent, beleaguered, mournful report on the state of the Vancouver housing crisis.

Vancouverite aims to fix ‘broken’ housing market by connecting ‘real buyers’ with ‘real sellers’

Meet David Kandestin, a 31-year-old corporate lawyer, who’s been living in Vancouver for three years now; like many others, he’s horrified by the rising costs and lack of availability in the city he now calls home.

He’s not a real estate agent, or someone looking to cash in on the crisis — he actually already owns a condo (how???) that he rents out, while living with his wife in a smaller place nearby. Still, he’s been flummoxed by the nature of the conversation around Vancouver real estate, and recently started a website, Vancouver Home Project, as what he calls a “thought experiment,” a way to change the dialogue and get people thinking of ways to break the cycle of shadow flipping, price gouging, and foreign investors who treat Vancouver homes as tax shelters. Here’s his manifesto:

The Vancouver real estate market is broken. Prices are beyond the point of no return. The market is no longer a ‘market.’ The cause? We’re not sure: low interest rates, foreign money, no supply, ‘shadow flipping.’ The solution? We don’t know: raise interest rates, vacancy tax, foreign ownership restrictions. One thing is clear. Politicians will not intervene.

The ultimate goal? To connect buyers and sellers who want to break free of the cycle and help them find each other — and their new homes. The reporter above notes that he himself knows of two families who purchased homes below market value because “the sellers wanted their homes go to families with children.” There are also agents who talk of how an emotional appeal can provide an incentive with sellers — buyers expressing their ties to a neighborhood, a promise not to knock down a home.

While I’m not sure that “changing the dialogue” will have much impact in the long term, it’s a beautiful idea, and certainly can’t hurt. And it’s nice to see community members asserting their investment, rather than politicians speaking in a bubble.

What about you? Could you imagine turning down six figures all in the service of community values?

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