From the OP &gt;&gt; ...absentee foreign ownership and empty condos, which are said to account for nearly 25 per cent of units in certain neighbourhoods.<p>There are parts of Vancouver that are just dead.  Rush hour now sees more carpenters and real estate agents commuting into these residential areas each morning than commute out.  Places like the North Shore are essentially industrial zones manufacturing real estate prices.  The people who live there (me) talk of empty neighborhoods populated only by retirees, every other house either under construction or sitting empty.