If you are thinking of moving to the Vancouver area, you will have to be prepared to spend a great deal of money.
As great as Vancouver is, there are many things that are keeping this city rather expensive.
If you have wondered why the city’s pricing is so high, we have ten reasons that will help you clear things up a bit.
Even if you are just going to Vancouver for a visit, it pays to know a bit about what goes on there and why costs can sometimes be higher than you may expect.
Why Is Vancouver So Expensive?
1. Commuting Is Easy
Commuting in Vancouver is going to be very easy.
When cities have an easy commute, they are also generally a bit more expensive to live in.
This is simply because you may or may not need the added expenses of owning a car.
If you don’t want to drive to your office, you can take advantage of biking, express trains, Skytrains, or even the subway.
Carefully choosing where in Vancouver you live is essential.
When you choose your position carefully, you can make sure that your commute avoids all rush hour issues that you would deal with in other large cities.
In addition to the ease of commuting, the prices are relatively fair for what they offer.
Essentially, if you want to live without a car, you can do so in Vancouver.
Think of the expenses that this could save you long-term if you could pull this off.
In addition to having access to the high-end commuting system, the views of the city and surrounding landscape are rather impressive.
This commute and the accessibility to get to your home and job make Vancouver more expensive.
2. Weather
Many people will assume that the weather in Canada is difficult to deal with.
Although Vancouver is not in a tropical climate quite like Florida, it has some really great benefits to its weather.
One of the major benefits is consistency.
You can be outside all year long in Vancouver, and the weather is going to remain relatively constant.
This means that, in the winter, you are rarely going to see temperatures below freezing.
In fact, people are still out walking, biking, and hiking even in the winter months.
In the summer, you will get no humidity and relatively mild weather.
This is not a place where you even need to have an air conditioner if you don’t want to have one.
The only issue with the weather is that the winter season is relatively rainy.
If you can handle a few gloomy days, you will do just fine with the weather in Vancouver.
Always remember that the areas with the best climates are going to cost you quite a bit of extra money.
If you are just visiting Vancouver, you can probably save a bit by visiting during the winter months.
3. Foreign Real Estate Buyers
Vancouver has a very high percentage of foreign real estate buyers.
With all of the benefits of living in Vancouver, this likely comes as no surprise, but the problem is that these buyers are going to impact the cost of the market.
Buyers end up coming in with very large budgets and purchasing any available real estate that they can find.
Foreign buyers are generally cash buyers, and they can pick up a piece of property before it even hits the market.
This type of purchasing power is going to severely limit the local people who are looking to scale up their homes or move into the city.
It’s hard to compete in a market like this, and it feels as though the pricing keeps going up with no end in sight.
Luckily, there are things that buyers can do, like establishing a relationship with a very good real estate broker.
However, in the end, the prices that are paid for houses are still going to be relatively high.
The more people with the ability to purchase, the more money it is going to cost to get into a home in the Vancouver area.
With Vancouver being so open to immigration, this just adds even more buyers to the pool, and the supply and demand issue comes into play.
4. Natural Beauty
Some people rank Vancouver as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
We have learned that the more beautiful something is, the more it is going to cost us.
The natural beauty of Vancouver ends up costing you quite a bit of money to be able to enjoy it.
However, most people will agree that it is worth the price that you pay.
One of the most unique things about the Vancouver area is the access to the beach and the mountains.
Most areas will have one or the other because of the difference between sea level and the height of the mountains.
Some of the storms that pass through during the Vancouver rainy season are going to be a photographer’s dream.
The landscaping, the large trees, the water, and the wildlife make Vancouver a beautiful place to live and visit.
This ends up costing the visitors and residents quite a bit of extra money.
5. City Planning
One of the things that experts seem to all agree on is that Vancouver was designed in a very smart way.
We have covered the concept that Vancouver is expensive because it is beautiful.
This is very much the case, but Vancouver’s developers also went about building this city in the smartest way possible.
Vancouver has Stanley Park that is a 1001-acre park filled with trees and beautiful views.
This park surrounds a major area of the city, and it provides a place for people to gather and enjoy all that Vancouver has to offer.
Through the years, Vancouver has put limitations on a certain amount of building to make sure that the green spaces are protected throughout the city.
There is also a seawall that is built around the downtown, and it makes for a very beautiful waterfront area for people to enjoy.
The access to this seawall is free, and it is well landscaped as well.
These areas have only further enhanced the options of outdoor activities for Vancouver residents.
For people who enjoy being outdoors and spending time in nature, Vancouver has what they are looking for.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, that comes at a cost.
6. Canadian Benefits of Vancouver
All countries have some unique benefits that set them apart and make them highly popular places to live.
One of those countries is Canada, and there are lots of good things going on in Canada that people are generally willing to pay for.
One of the things that people really like about Canada is that they are open to those who want to come and live there.
If you are interested in moving to Canada, there is a process, but they will still welcome you.
Vancouver is a very diverse culture with people coming from all over the world to enjoy what it has to offer.
Compared with other countries, Canada is known for having much less government corruption and keeping its citizens’ general interests in mind.
Like all countries, there will be disagreements between the people at times, but in all, the government is quite peaceful.
Some of the political disruption and corruption we see in the United States is hard for many Canadians to wrap their heads around.
As more and more people move to Canada from other areas of the world, they will see how well this country handles blending cultures.
The fact that Vancouver is in Canada, and the residents have the advantage of being part of the Canadian government is going to increase the pricing of the city.
7. Green City
By green, we mean that Vancouver is energy efficient and environmentally active.
The city of Vancouver is very clean, and they intend to keep it that way because this is a place where the environment is taken seriously.
In the winter, Vancouver gets quite a bit of rain, and it helps to wash things down and keep the air quite clean as well.
When you head out for a day on the beach in Vancouver, you will see that they are clean and not littered with trash.
More and more, popular beaches are becoming a place you would never want to venture to.
With the Vancouver beaches, the popularity does not seem to impact the beauty of the beach.
When you compare the air in Vancouver to other areas around, it tends to be some of the cleanest.
One of the things to keep in mind is that people who care about the environment and can think about being outdoors and taking care of the earth are generally successful in their careers as well.
These types of people can afford to live in a place like Vancouver where things are green and clean.
However, when you are trying to put food on the table and pay your cable bill, it is hard to think about environmental impacts.
Most people care, but many don’t have the ability to fit it into their lives.
The fact that Vancouver is environmentally friendly and green certainly adds to the overall cost and the wealth of the people who purchase homes there.
8. Safety
One of the things that makes Vancouver so expensive is that it is very safe.
Since Vancouver is so safe, you can imagine that the price you will pay to live there will also be very high.
One of the things you will notice is that violent crime rates in Vancouver are very low.
In fact, for a large and highly populated city like Vancouver, the crime rates don’t even compare to those in other areas.
Of course, like any city, some areas are going to have higher crime rates than others.
All cities have pockets that are good and bad, but as a whole, it is rather safe to live in Vancouver.
In addition to general crime and violent crime, the overall safety for pedestrians and bikers is quite good as well.
Most parts of the city have access for bikes to share the road with cars.
Again, with Vancouver being so well known for having an outdoor feel, it is essential that the outdoors is properly designed and set up for people to use it.
With the amount of money that you will have to spend to live in Vancouver, you will at least be able to feel like you are getting something for the money you spent.
9. Time Outdoors
People are looking for more ways to spend time outdoors.
The Vancouver area is a great place to spend time outdoors.
Many people assume that Canada will be cold and difficult to spend time outside, but that is not the case in Vancouver.
In the Vancouver area, you can experience the ocean and the mountains.
Not many areas allow for this time of outdoor activity for most of the year.
Luckily, with the weather being reasonably consistent in Vancouver, you can spend time outdoors all year long.
There are many miles of public beaches in downtown Vancouver that will help to attract plenty of people.
Overall, this is a city that you will want to visit or move to if you enjoy an active lifestyle.
People in Vancouver are serious about their health and wellness and spending time in the great outdoors.
Areas of the world that have access to this type of outdoor lifestyle are going to be more expensive.
With so many outdoor activities being free or close to free, people look at these as being big benefits of a lifestyle and living in an area.
Therefore, Vancouver pricing continues to rise with the access to all of these activities.
10. Great Schools
As a whole, Canada is serious about education.
They work to make sure that children receive a well-rounded and professional education.
In addition to the schools in the lower grades, as kids age, they are then exposed to higher education, and this is where Vancouver really thrives.
The University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University are highly ranked schools located in the Vancouver area.
This helps to attract students, but it also helps to create jobs in the Vancouver area.
These schools help to bring in many foreign students who will then end up staying in the area for their career and their lives.
Having well-known and internationally recognized schools as part of the general area, the pricing is going to increase.
Not to mention that the education offered at these schools is quite expensive as well.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these reasons have helped you clear up why Vancouver is so expensive.
Chances are that knowing the reasons behind this city being priced so high will likely not discourage you from checking it out.
There are so many great things that Vancouver has to offer that it is worth the price that you will pay.
Make sure that you are smart about your expenses and take advantage of all of the free outdoor activities you can participate in.
If you do these things, Vancouver becomes a bit more affordable.
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