It’s no secret that Vancouver’s skyrocketing housing prices are wild. The cost of a single-family home is now at $1.6 million, a 39 per cent increase from last summer.
Fuelled in part by wealthy foreign buyers, many from China, the city is enacting a 15 per cent tax on homes purchased by non-Canadians.
But it’s not just the housing market that’s been affected by wealthy folks from foreign countries. The Vancouver luxury car market has gone gangbusters as well.
Numbers from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and found that the number of high end vehicles in Vancouver has almost doubled between 2009 and 2015. That’s a short time period for such a dramatic increase.
Business is booming for high-end luxury and exotic car dealerships. Not wanting to miss out on making a sale to buyers whose primary language isn’t English, some are hiring sales reps that speak Mandarin to cater to buyers from China, according to Bloomberg.
And these buyers don’t just want any luxury car – they want the best, most exclusive models.
For example, the Bloomberg report quotes an eyebrow-raising anecdote from MCL Motor Cars’ general sales manager Caleb Kwok.
He says a customer came in and wanted a new Bentley Bentayga SUV. Great, but this was even before the vehicle was in production.
The customer told Kwonk he wanted the vehicle right away. “How much do I need to pay to get that car right now?” he reportedly said.