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$2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

antimoneylaunderinglaw.com

31–40 of 174 posts

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#31
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you still have to pay rent - if you could buy, your housing costs would be earning equity.

Especially when rent for young people is around one third to one half of their income (I would know, it's about 1/3 of mine). Would take me about 6-8 years to save for a deposit on an older apartment.

If your rent is 30-50% of your income you are living in too expensive of an area for your means or need more housemates.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#32
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except young Australians, who have to rent and cannot rely on real estate property for their retirement. This is orthogonal to the money laundering, but what's stopping the young people from investing for their retirement? Houses are not the only way to build savings.

That's true, the Australian system of superannuation is actually pretty great, your job pays a portion of your income into your super which gets invested for you, you have some choice as to where it gets invested (high risk vs. low risk etc.) However what I fear is that if the super isn't managed well, inflation hits, or you just don't build up a large enough investment the high rental prices in Australia will eat up…

But you don't fear buying a house that depreciates in value, or doesn't appreciate enough to cover mortgage interest, property tax, house insurance, and maintenance costs?

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#33
post #29

I study at Vancouver UBC and rented a room in a house in the nearby area. I could tell that the Canadian government has started to investigate the corrupted $ because one day a government official came to "my house" and asked the information about the previous landowner. It seemed that he used the corrupted $ to buy the real estate and make more $

I'll just say if you're using house sales in Vancouver or the Bay Area to launder your money you are really moving a lot of money around.

I bought a house for cash in Las Vegas after the crash and the bank never once asked where I got the funds to do so. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#34

This is a relatively big problem in Australia - there has been talk of a housing bubble in Australia for the last few years which in part has been propped up by Chinese grey money buying whole apartment buildings for investment, which drives up prices (they can just dictate prices) and keeps young locals out [1]. I cannot afford a house and I have a well-paying job. The government looks the other way since building i…

People like to rag on Chinese investors, but I think the main reasons are insane tax breaks and limited supply.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#35
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when rent for young people is around one third to one half of their income (I would know, it's about 1/3 of mine). Would take me about 6-8 years to save for a deposit on an older apartment.

If your rent is 30-50% of your income you are living in too expensive of an area for your means or need more housemates.

I've found that 30-50% of income being used for rent is fairly normal, regardless of where you might be living.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#36
post #16

This is a relatively big problem in Australia - there has been talk of a housing bubble in Australia for the last few years which in part has been propped up by Chinese grey money buying whole apartment buildings for investment, which drives up prices (they can just dictate prices) and keeps young locals out [1]. I cannot afford a house and I have a well-paying job. The government looks the other way since building i…

Except young Australians, who have to rent and cannot rely on real estate property for their retirement. This is orthogonal to the money laundering, but what's stopping the young people from investing for their retirement? Houses are not the only way to build savings.

No, but it takes a lot less work to invest in real estate that you also live in than to try to find and monitor a 6% annual return on your own.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#37

This is a relatively big problem in Australia - there has been talk of a housing bubble in Australia for the last few years which in part has been propped up by Chinese grey money buying whole apartment buildings for investment, which drives up prices (they can just dictate prices) and keeps young locals out [1]. I cannot afford a house and I have a well-paying job. The government looks the other way since building i…

Chinese grey money buying whole apartment buildings for investment, which drives up prices The nice thing about housing is that one can easily build a lot more of it, and it makes a great de facto investment: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/19/exporting_hou... . The only thing stopping most municipalities from pursuing this reasonable outcome is politics and resistance from NIMBY incumbent landowners.

No. Those policies are in place because planning makes sense.

Not everywhere should be tear down and build up in all conditions.

How about the French quarter of New Orleans or historic districts of other cities?

This argument always shows up here and is idealistic bs.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#38

This is a relatively big problem in Australia - there has been talk of a housing bubble in Australia for the last few years which in part has been propped up by Chinese grey money buying whole apartment buildings for investment, which drives up prices (they can just dictate prices) and keeps young locals out [1]. I cannot afford a house and I have a well-paying job. The government looks the other way since building i…

Chinese grey money buying whole apartment buildings for investment, which drives up prices The nice thing about housing is that one can easily build a lot more of it, and it makes a great de facto investment: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/19/exporting_hou... . The only thing stopping most municipalities from pursuing this reasonable outcome is politics and resistance from NIMBY incumbent landowners.

[deleted]

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#39
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when rent for young people is around one third to one half of their income (I would know, it's about 1/3 of mine). Would take me about 6-8 years to save for a deposit on an older apartment.

If your rent is 30-50% of your income you are living in too expensive of an area for your means or need more housemates.

It's also the market rate in the affected cities.

You begin to see the nature of the problem.

Re: $2T in Proceeds of Corruption Removed from China and Taken to US, AUS, CAN, NL

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you still have to pay rent - if you could buy, your housing costs would be earning equity.

It's not uncommon for it to be better financially to always rent and just invest the difference between rent and mortgage+maintenance+taxes. With interest first mortgages as they are it is generally a long time before you earn any equity at all.

This. I did the math when I rented an apartment in downtown Toronto and the rent was less than mortgage interest + condo fees + property tax + maintenance.
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