Dirty Money in B.C. – Real Estate for the Rich (Part 3)

🏘️ Dirty Money in B.C. – Real Estate for the Rich (Part 3)

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita

In Part 2 of this series, we looked at how casinos became a revolving door for laundered cash. But once that cash was “clean,” it had to go somewhere… and it often went into real estate.

💼 Anonymous Buyers, Skyrocketing Prices

The Cullen Commission found that B.C.’s real estate market was a magnet for money laundering. Dirty money was used to buy homes, condos, and commercial properties — often through shell companies or nominee purchasers, so the real owners remained hidden.

Homes were bought and flipped quickly, prices inflated, and luxury developments expanded — while working families were priced out.

🏙️ “Housing Crisis” or Money Laundering Crisis?

We keep hearing that housing is unaffordable because of supply issues. But the Commission made it clear: criminal money distorted the market.

While billionaires and investors used B.C. as a parking lot for dirty cash, everyday people couldn’t find rentals or buy homes. Our housing market became a tool for global crime — not shelter.

📉 Who Pays the Price?

• Younger generations who can’t afford to live where they grew up
• Renters facing renovictions and rising prices
• People living in tents while empty luxury condos sit unsold

🛑 Almost No Oversight

Realtors weren’t required to verify where the money came from. In some cases, buyers paid with briefcases full of cash. No questions. No consequences.

💭 Reflective Questions:

• How has the housing crisis affected your life or someone you know?
• Should buyers be forced to declare the real source of their funds? Why hasn’t this already been done?

Tomorrow: Part 4 – Luxury Toys, Loopholes, and Law Enforcement Failures

#BCHousingCrisis #RealEstateLaundering #CullenCommission #ZipolitaSpeaks #FollowTheMoney