The Empty Condos Saga – Part 3: Dirty Money in Paradise
Vancouver’s empty condo towers weren’t just the result of market forces or second-home buyers. They were a playground for money laundering, and the Cullen Commission would later confirm just how deep it went.
Casinos, shell companies, luxury goods, and offshore accounts all funneled billions of dollars into BC real estate. Properties were bought in cash, left empty, and sold again — all while ordinary people struggled to pay rent, buy a first home, or even find shelter.
The Commission’s findings were damning: the Clark government knew money laundering was happening, and warnings were repeatedly ignored. Vancouver’s skyline became a mirror of global capital flows, not a reflection of local housing needs.
It wasn’t just rich people buying second homes — it was organized crime and foreign money, exploiting loopholes, driving up prices, and turning homes into financial products rather than places to live. Meanwhile, families were forced to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table.
The contrast could not have been starker: luxury condos empty and waiting for laundered money, while Vancouver’s streets filled with tents, shelters overflowed, and parents worried if their kids would have a bed tonight.
This is the point where the empty condos story stops being just about real estate. It’s about justice, accountability, and the human cost of greed.
✨ Next up in Part 4: The Human Cost — homelessness, displacement, and the moral contradiction of wealth in a city full of empty homes.
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