Bob Rennie, a Vancouver based Real Estate Marketer and founder of Rennie Marketing Systems, recently revealed the amount of real estate wealth boomers and super seniors (aged 75+) in the region are sitting on. During his annual announcement to Greater Vancouver’s development community, Rennie dropped the shocking number: $163.4 billion.
If this wasn’t newsworthy enough, Rennie also introduced heavy stats that tell of one-third of Greater Vancouver’s housing stock currently consisting of more bedrooms than people. In fact, the number of empty bedrooms in the region has increased by 26 percent over the past 10 years, and now nears 400,000.
Believing this to be the reason why there will be so much money freed up over the next decade or so, Rennie explains that while the boomers look to downsize into affordable three-bedroom condos and townhouses that will generate a profit on sale, they are also helping their children with their own mortgage payments. A new notion, in the past the transfer of wealth usually didn’t happen so early, and often times wasn’t until the parent passed away.
A final note, Rennie addressed the multicultural aspect of the city. With an average of 24 different ethnic groups represented in many of the regions neighbourhoods, today nearly 50 percent of Vancouver’s population is of Asian origin. “Globalization isn’t just a word. It’s the new reality,” he said.
