Housing

Question 1

Financialization

Answer 1

Increasing powers of financial actors in sector, resulting in things like investment and long term monthly payments for something. Like online shopping monthly payments.

Question 2

REITS

Answer 2

Real Estate Investment Trusts. They buy buildings and rent them. Buy investing in a REIT, you own part of 1 or more buildings.

Question 3

Commodification

Answer 3

A things exchange value overtaking its use value. It is seen as more of something to be exchanged, rather than something to be used.

Question 4

Exchange value

Answer 4

The value of which a thing has when its exchanged. Usually in the form of currency.

Question 5

Use value

Answer 5

The value of a thing when used for a purpose, such as food for sustenance or housing for shelter.

Question 6

What are some proximate factors of the student housing crisis?

Answer 6

-More international students in Canada
-Less PBSAs
-Developers building luxury housing
-Changes in the housing market due to the pandemic

Question 7

What happened in Vancouver in 1986, and how did it affect the housing market?

Answer 7

The world expo. More people came to Vancouver and only rented since they were only there for the expo. Olaf Solhun got kicked out of his hotel room.

Question 8

Who is Olaf Solhun?

Answer 8

An old man who lived in Vancouver. He was kicked out of the hotel room he was living in to make room for world expo visitors, and died soon after. It is said that his eviction greatly contributed to his death.

Question 9

What happened in Vancouver in 2010?

Answer 9

The Olympics. More people had come to Vancouver to rent, adding pressure to the crisis. Population had also doubled at this point since 1986. Because of more rental people coming in, rents increased.

Question 10

What does it mean when they say Vancouver is a “debtscape”?

Answer 10

It means that the city is full of debt. In the housing market its like, renters have debt to pay for rent, landlords have debt to the developers bc they bought the place, developers are in debt to to the bank bc they got a loan.

Question 11

What does it mean when they say Vancouver is a “hedge city”?

Answer 11

Hedge City is a safe, socially and politically stable metropolis with extremely high real estate values caused by foreign investors buying properties as a hedge against instability in their own countries.

Question 12

What does Ricardo Tranjan think about the housing crisis?

Answer 12

He thinks that the problem is a political problem, and that to fix the housing crisis, we must tackle the politics of housing, an all things related to it.

Question 13

What was the historical process of housing becoming financialized? (starts at enclosure)

Answer 13

Land was enclosed and became private property. Housing was built on the private property which then becomes real estate. Real estate then becomes bought, sold, traded, etc. and is financialized into an asset.

land -> (enclosure) -> property -> (commodification) -> real estate (financialization) -> assets

Question 14

Deregulation

Answer 14

Deregulation is the loosening of regulations surrounding something. In relation to housing, this means less restrictions on rent increase, types of property that can be developed, etc. There has been a steady trend towards this.

Question 15

Globalization

Answer 15

In housing, globalization is the opening of a places housing market to foreign buyers and investors. Someone from Hong Kong could buy an apartment in Vancouver, without ever stepping foot in it.

Question 16

How is the $100 million NYC penthouse in the One57 tower significant to the housing crisis? What does it say?

Answer 16

That apartment unit usually will not have anyone in it. Those types of apartments are used as stores of wealth more before housing. This is a sign of financialization, where the home is being used as an asset rather than a place to live

Question 17

Gentrification

Answer 17

Gentrification is when rents in an area become so high that anyone who cannot afford it moves out, and the wealthier who can move in, thus resulting in everything in the neighborhood generally becoming more expensive.

Question 18

What do Madden and Marcuse say about the housing crisis?

Answer 18

○ “But ability to pay is unequal while the need for a place to live is universal. There is thus an unavoidable contradiction.”
○ Housing issues are not the result of greed, but are the result of real estate companies operating as they should, trying to turn a profit without regard to social consequence. The housing crisis is a result of the market working how it does.

+ anything else they said

Question 19

What is the Vancouver Broadway plan?

Answer 19

Is a plan proposing to densify the housing around the Broadway area, making it like a second downtown. 75% of the new units will be rentals, some of which being below market rates.

Question 20

What does the Vancouver Tenants Union think about the Broadway plan?

Answer 20

They think that it will just further displace current renters, and that the promised current renter protections will not be enforced, as there is so system for it to be enforced. They also think that it will raise the land values, leading to higher rent.

Question 21

The Rent-gap Theory

Answer 21

The theory proposes a gap between the actual value of a place to rent, and its potential value if it was redeveloped to be more expensive. The “gap” is economic opportunity for developers / property owners.

Question 22

Delta rent

Answer 22

The difference between what a current long time renter pays, versus what a new renter would pay. If a landlord replaced their old tenants with new tenants, rents could be changed by this percent.

Question 23

What are some solutions to the housing crisis?

Answer 23

• Organize
• Elections
• Research but like more on the ground yk
• Our solutions must not prioritize housings enhance value over its use value.

Question 24

What is the problem with the way housing is mostly discussed now according to Tranjan?

Answer 24

Housing is viewed as a technical problem with a technical solution, such as simply changing zoning laws or building more units. Tranjan believes the core issue with housing is a political one.