Recently made some cash from investments in HK car parks and finally decided, there must be other stuff out there where I'm buying something that appreciates but doesn't limit me to owning a piece of paper stating ownership of a tiny concrete patch on top of more concrete in Hong Kong.
So looked back home in Canada and thought ok, Vancouver is totally out of the question and I don't know why but I only ever wanted to live on the west coast. So went online to realtor.ca, set criteria to under 250k CAD, 5+ acres, within 8 hours drive of Vancouver Airport, within 30 minutes drive to a supermarket/schools. Lots of stuff came up and spent about 2 weeks researching back and fourth between cities like Williams Lake, Kamloops, Creston, etc. It was a bit frustrating at first dealing with realtors over emails; seems a lot of them weren't motivated to provide more information like latest photos. Made a trip back last week for 7 days and visited those properties and my parents; the realtors were much nicer in person as they didn't want to deal with time wasters over the internet.
It was definitely a good thing that I went to see the properties instead of making a purchase site unseen based on photos and Google Map. One that was on my top short list and was about to make an offer on, actually had the entire driveway overgrown as the Google Street View photos were out of date. And walking the land one is able to tell better if the 30 acres lot only has a buildable gound of 5 acres where as a 10acre lot is 100% buildable.
Interestingly, I am now putting down an offer on a 70 acres lot that is not even listed; the realtor knows logging companies that just finished their business on the lot and is ready to sell the land and move onto the next project. 6 minutes drive to a Buy Low Foods, Tim Hortons, RBC and grades 1-12 schools. Cell phone signal etc, just need to install my own power, well and septic system. Was able to drive faster once I got familiar with the car's handling (by the way in summer time, you seriously do not need 4x4; regretted insisting on a Jeep Wrangler rental over a Corolla whenever I had to fill up at the pump). Took me 6 hours from Vancouver airport to the town at first but coming back I left at 6am and got off Highway 1 to PNE in Vancouver by 10:30am on a Saturday.
The lot is large enough that I offered 2 friends to come join me by subdividing the 70 acres. One took me up on the offer so we'll be having 35 acres each over looking the valley. It's almost like you can start your own enclaves with friends out there LOL
Joined the local community group on Facebook and interesting to see lots of people needing jobs to be done at their small businesses. Even their contentious topics dealing with environment and First Nations land rights; almost reminded me of the heated discussions between people on the whole Occupy thing in Hong Kong. Everyone was super friendly, had a few drinks with the realtor talking about everything from Jim Pattison to making a skating rink in the backyard every winter for the kids.
One interesting thing that we talked about was how the leadership to grow communities wasn't dependent on the government. For those who's not from BC, Jim Pattison is sort of like the Li Ka Shing of the province. He insisted to keep the lumber mill open in communities and invests money into developing new commercial complexes to lease out to supermarkets to keep rural communities growing. Most of all, he believes in keeping blue collar jobs alive because he believes a balanced economy is in the interest of Canadian society. In turn, the local highschool has some of the most advanced equipment in their workshops; kids want to become welders or heavy equipment operators, companies sponsor them to become certified with a decent job waiting for them. Sadly, this is the kind of thing lacking by the elites in Hong Kong, IMO.
I mention started the course because I won't be moving back immediately. Want my kids to learn Cantonese until they are 10 years old. And being a greedy guy, I wanted to keep my foot in both boats as they say in Chinese and I'm not posh enough to keep both my HK home and assets and build a new house on the land immediately. The homes situation is reverse of Hong Kong where the land is the most expensive part of the equation; building labour is much more expensive there and typically the land is only 1/4 or less of the whole cost of building a decent house/garage/barn/etc. Plan to get a concrete pad set up and the drive way paved with gravel first so I can park a rental RV on it every summer or winter with wife and kids for next few years. Then build out the home once I've made enough savings and adjusted my financial means. I think interior BC is growing pretty rapidly as people get fed up with the lower mainland and they don't want to head out east.
Anyway, just sharing for people who wonder if they should move back to Vancouver from Hong Kong; my suggestion is don't. Vancouver is pretty much like another Hong Kong now with unaffordable housing. And my parents and others are getting taxed out of their home that we lived in for 30 years. They've got their own social upheavel going on that the media doesn't like to report on; everyone thinks it's uptopia compared to HK but have you seen their tent cities and young homeless people and beggers at every corners in downtown? A friend who taught music in Vancouver had to change teaching subjects as the VSB said there's no budget for band anymore in lower mainland highschools. Really? All that property and income taxes and you don't have money to spend on a music program for public schools? As a Canadian I felt it's downright shameful. But everyone keeps quiet about it and enjoy their vegan no fat gluten free sustainably sourced latte before their yoga sessions. Everyone out on the streets walking about on weekdays like they don't need to work; well yea I'd be smiling like that too when my home appreciated 5x in the last 3 years. Just like Hong Kong. But again, no one's rioting about it.
LOL sorry for the side-rant.