Somebody wrote: "It is the BC Libs fault for the high prices. When the NDP were govt in the 90's housing prices went down."

Nope. That pretends there is causation when really there is merely correlation.

What happened from around 1985 to 1995 was that there was great fear among rich folks in Hong Kong about what Beijing would do following Hong Kong repatriation, and so Vancouver was flooded with overseas money, mainly from Hong Kong.

But then from around 1995 to 2000, it turned out that the Chinese government was actually pretty laid back and hands off in areas like financial corruption, greedy lawbreaking, and so on, so lots of industrialists stayed put on the Mainland.

Since 2000 however, Beijing has MASSIVELY ramped up its crackdowns against graft and corruption, appointing very aggressive directors to the pertinent portfolios.

The result has not been surprising: Huge waves of money fleeing China for safe havens like Vancouver real estate.

Understanding China is central here.