While the purchase price of real estate and residential rental rates increased in the 19821983 time period, the actual stock of rental housing did not decrease. This phenomenon did occur in 1986, however, subsequent to the opening of Expo 86. For the duration of the world's fair, thousands of residential rental units were withdrawn from the market to be used as temporary visitor housing. In this situation, the actual stock of residential rental housing decreased, and residential rental prices, once again, skyrocketed.

The contemporary real estate environment in the Vancouver metropolitan area contains the elements of each of the two earlier real estate crises of the decade of the eighties. Some 3factors associated with the contemporary real estate environment, however, cause it to be unique. These factors are (1) the Asian source of much of the capital being invested in Vancouver real estate in 1989, and

Allison, N. F., and Brown, R. Encyclopedia of Real Estate Appraising, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: PrenticeHall, Inc., 1984.

flee what is one of the world's most vigorous economies are the most visible sign of the nervousness which pervades that British crown colony just eight years before political control is scheduled to revert to China.4

CTV. Report on Vancouver real estate market on evening televi sion news program, 20 October 1989.

10N. F. Allison, and R. Brown, Encyclopedia of Real EstateAppraising, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: PrenticeHall, Inc., 1984), 6.

(2) the outright destruction of rental housing, as opposed to a temporary diversion to alternate uses. It is these factors which are at the base of the public uproar over the contemporary real estate environment. Asian investment capital is also implicated in the destruction of rental housing; thus, the public focus on and criticism of Asian investors is understandable. While this public focus is understandable, however, the criticism is not altogether justified.