Dear Editor,
BC Assessment has made us all very rich overnight by increasing our assets values by 42 per cent in a year.
All the analysts and real estate brokers have been saying that the house prices reached last year are not sustainable.
I would like to ask BC Assessment if they have ever assessed property values in the past by an increment of 40 per cent within a year.
If similar increments were seen in other sectors of our economy, the inflation rate would hit the ceiling.
I am wondering if the present practice adopted by BC Assessment of assessing your house values by sales in our neighbourhoods is valid any more when you see some freak sales of values beyond the norm?
In the past, the values would be higher by four to five per cent and one would expect it to be a product of inflation.
But also unrealistic asset values may lead some owners to think that their equity in their investment has doubled or tripled and mislead them into making wrong investment decisions.
I read in the papers other day that the detached home values are already down by five per cent since July last year.
Does it mean that at the next assessment, we would be advised that we are poorer by 20 or 25 per cent?
BC Assessment should either get a new system of valuation or average out the increment over a period of three to five years.
By that time, the market would have settled down to realistic values.
Sadru Ramji
Richmond
