Above is the front page headline of the top North American Mandarin newspaper, the World Journal.
The World Journal is a daily Chinese language newspaper serving overseas Chinese in North America. The newspaper has its headquarters in Whitestone, Queens, New York City and is published in major cities containing large Chinese-speaking populations. These include Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and Washington, D.C. in the United States as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
VMD of Vancouver Condo Info tells us today's headline, in big, bold letters state: "Vancouver Chinese New Year RE Sales Plummet 70%"
This follow's yesterday's headline from a local Vancouver Asian paper that screamed: 70% Drop in Home Sales Since Chinese New Year.
The World Journal is a daily Chinese language newspaper serving overseas Chinese in North America. The newspaper has its headquarters in Whitestone, Queens, New York City and is published in major cities containing large Chinese-speaking populations. These include Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and Washington, D.C. in the United States as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
VMD of Vancouver Condo Info tells us today's headline, in big, bold letters state: "Vancouver Chinese New Year RE Sales Plummet 70%"
This follow's yesterday's headline from a local Vancouver Asian paper that screamed: 70% Drop in Home Sales Since Chinese New Year.
(Note: the google translation of yesterday's article incorrectly translates the figure 70 as a 7. The news article does actually call it a 70% drop. The change in numbers is a google error).
As you can see, the story is gaining wide attention in the Chinese community.
Wasn't it just on February 7th, 2013 that the Vancouver Sun was telling us how "Realtors prepare for Lunar New Year Upswing in Sales"?
In fact it was Cameron McNeill, president of the recently disgraced MAC Marketing Solutions, who was quoted in the article:
McNeil said his salespeople are seeing an increase in activity, including from Chinese buyers. “To me, (Chinese buyers) are a leading indicator,” McNeil said. “What I mean is, when Chinese buyers are active, it is a little bit of a bellwether (for the overall market), and the Chinese are active.”
Of course it was only two days after this article that some of McNeill's employee's staged their infamous media deception to create the impression that Chinese buyers were still queuing up to buy into Vancouver's teetering real estate market.
So it begs the question... if the Chinese buyers are a leading indicator - a "bellwether" for the overall market - and Vancouver Chinese New Year real estate sales just plunged 70%; is the overall market in Vancouver in grave danger of plunging significantly?
Perhaps this is why some of MAC's employees were so desperate to fake the presence of active Chinese buyers?
One final thought.
Why is it we are reading about these stunning Vancouver real estate statistics exclusively in the Asian language press and not in the English speaking press?
One final thought.
Why is it we are reading about these stunning Vancouver real estate statistics exclusively in the Asian language press and not in the English speaking press?
(hat tip VMD and goku3)
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Having lived and traded through the insane Chinese stock market moves of 2006-2009 (put up a weekly chart of FXI), this is quite comical to me. Sometimes stereotypes are true: Chinese people love to gamble and panic.
ReplyDelete"Why is there nary a word from the very English speaking press who regurgitated the R/E Lunar New Year hype to begin with?"....Simple : it's bad news for RE cartel.It just show how much push they have in local media outlets.
ReplyDeleteagreed - i didn't think the developers' advertising dollars had as much influence as others purported but now I believe it.
DeleteI've lost respect for newspapers.
Hi Whisperer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this to our attention.
I don't see a problem with the translation of the title. As far as I can tell, numbers are the same, so we should see 70 in the headline, but it is 7.
Could you clarify it so there is no misunderstanding.
The newspaper title says "7成". In chinese, 1成 = 10%, so 7成 = 70%.
DeleteActually this begs another question: if Mr. McNeil was laying the groundwork for their CNY strategy in the papers prior the infamous Lee sisters incident, does it not stand to reason that this was part of a coordinated marketing activation? It seems that Mr. McNeil has really dodged a bullet in this entire affair when it still is more likely that he was involved or behind it than simply a witness to it.
ReplyDeleteOf course this was a coordinated, premeditated effort!! It backfired on MAC Marketing and I for one am glad that justice is being served. What would even better is if his business tanked and he went away. I've never liked this guy - yes I've met him before.
DeleteI always read that in bubbles it was the foreigners who entered only in the final stage of the run-up in prices and who lost the most money. Seems Vancouver really might be different in this regard with locals being the ones with the biggest losses.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered, if you were HAM and could look anywhere in the world to place your money, why choose one of the most overpriced markets in the world? I guess they're coming to this conclusion too.
Theres a good reason why the canadian papers are not publishing any of this corrupt and fraudulent BS. They are just as guilty as the people who orchastrated this fiasco . No Due-Dillagence in the reporters whatsoever . The Canadian news papers are just as much RE pumpers as the RE cartel are .
ReplyDeleteThe media is more at fault in my opinion. The function of marketers is to separate you from your money, and the function of news media is to get to the bottom of things. Media has failed us.
DeleteWeird - on one hand we're being told that only 2-3% of buyers are not from Canada yet on the other the Vancouver housing market is on the front page of the top Mandarin newspaper...
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to HAM, the only lie bigger than "HAM is coming to save us this year" is "HAM never existed"
The fact of the matter is that someone from Shanghai who buys a place in Vancouver is not using their Vancouver lawyers address, not their Shanghai address.
The key is the source of the money not the residency aspect. 2-3% of purchasers live offshore. Most Chinese buyers drop their kids and/or wife here so the purchaser is a resident. What should be traced is the origin of the funds to make the purchase. Was the money earned here? If so, great. If not, it should be stopped (in my moderately humble opinion).
DeleteThe HAM issue is always looked at as an is/is not argument. It is definitely not the entire cause of the bubble, just one contributing factor.
I was told by a local realtor that a local investment company deliberately buys up about 20 homes in one area -- say Dunbar -- some for market value, others for over list price. They then take those recent sales, which they were responsible for, and use them as comparables to show mainland Chinese buyers in China to say,
ReplyDelete"Look, the market here is very active, homes are selling over list price. By the way, we can sell you this home for $2M."
Said investment company would then make a hefty profit selling homes they bought under a numbered company to buyers. They were artificially inflated the market and pumping it up too. This problem is more insidious and pervasive than simply Cam and MAC Marketing but it's bad that Cam, a Vancouverite, would sell himself out for profit. I guess it's not surprising - money talks but still, disappointing.
I believe it-after hearing a story from someone who works in the bank that Chinese were coming to Canada and buying up real estate (this was in spring 2011)-and this bank employee told me that they recently finished the paperwork for some Chinese individual who just bought 17 houses. This conversation took place at a family wedding, and an American listening said "Huh, sounds like a bubble to me!" Of course the bank employee wouldn't hear of any bubble talk and said that it was Vancouver and everyone wants to live here! The American just rolled his eyes.
DeleteI believe this story. When prices increase at double digits for many years all sorts of schemes get hatched to profit from the excess. This sort of thing is especially suited to mainland Chinese who seem to be so obsessed with real estate. But it just makes the inevitable crash much worse.
DeleteOk.
ReplyDeleteLet get this straight.A local investment company buys 40 million dollars of the most over priced real estate in the world.Then they try to convince a plane load of HAM buyers that the market is very active.Then they make "hefty" profits by selling the houses they bought under there forty odd numbered companies. I dont know what you have been smoking , but roll me a big fat one to, so I can understand this logic
pass it to the left....
DeleteThere will always be hyperboles from both the bears and bulls. But I do agree that developers, marketeers, agents, brokers, etc. will almost do whatever it takes to convince others to buy. The cunning ones will keep their own money out of harm's way.
DeleteCheck out www.bearingpoint.ca ..it's bad when they have to add a "market update" from Oct 2012 that the market is not crashing!
ReplyDelete