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Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

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Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#151

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

wuschel wrote: post #142
digislave wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? It seems obvious that cheap credit would drive up prices. For example people could just be bidding up to what they can pay off in about 30 years. If they simply do that, cheaper credit would rise house prices.

I was just wondering. It's hard to understand markets, IMHO, and I have no feeling how a potential balance between cost of money, supply and demand should look like in a sector like housing. Do you have any references or literature that would give me a better understanding? Originally, I also thought that proper restriction of foreign investment might be a good solution. I agree with you that it must be domestic acto…

>It is crazy what happens in cities like Berlin in regard to gentrification

Can you elaborate on this?

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#152

Post by tgv »

onion2k wrote: post #83
RandomWorker wrote: post #14

Home owners will be happy to hear this. Not yet home owners like me are screwed because rents to damn high and I can’t afford to save up for a down payment. Sorry bud.

It's good for home owners in the short term. In the long term it means everyone will spend more on housing, which limits the amount they can spend on everything else, which doesn't really help anyone.

Indeed. I had to move, and while I could sell at a high price, I had to buy at a high price in a frenetic market. This screams for regulation.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#153

Post by lrem »

rorykoehler wrote: post #145

There should be a global rule that non-residents can't buy property. Homes should be prioritised for living not investments. It's a drag on the global economy with so much money being tied up in unproductive assets which in turn soak up even more money through rent seeking.

Nah, let them invest. What we need is adding vacancies to the social housing pool.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#154

Post by rorykoehler »

lrem wrote: post #153
rorykoehler wrote: post #145

There should be a global rule that non-residents can't buy property. Homes should be prioritised for living not investments. It's a drag on the global economy with so much money being tied up in unproductive assets which in turn soak up even more money through rent seeking.

Nah, let them invest. What we need is adding vacancies to the social housing pool.

There is no space for that without radical rezoning and densification. The alternative is every city turning into massive urban sprawl which is entirely undesirable. If you are suggesting forcing private investors to make their properties available to public housing stock then I’m not sure why that would be an improvement without serious rent caps in place.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#158

Post by lrem »

rorykoehler wrote: post #154
lrem wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, let them invest. What we need is adding vacancies to the social housing pool.

There is no space for that without radical rezoning and densification. The alternative is every city turning into massive urban sprawl which is entirely undesirable. If you are suggesting forcing private investors to make their properties available to public housing stock then I’m not sure why that would be an improvement without serious rent caps in place.

A colleague told me about the setup in their home country some weeks ago, I _think_ that was the Dutch one, excuse my fuzzy memory... Once your €1500 tenant leaves, you have 3 or 6 months to find the next one. If not, the city will offer your place in parallel as social housing and you'll get €400 (flat rate for the whole municipality per size band) if that gets filled first. On a three year contract. Makes for a very good incentive to meet the market.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#159

Post by probably_wrong »

judge2020 wrote: post #4

I don't think you need to look far to figure out that foreign cash purchases are coming from... foreign rich people who realize that housing is the best long-term investment possible.

It's not just rich people, unless by "rich" you mean "people with savings".

I looked at the investments my bank made with my savings, and IIRC a chunk of it was invested in real estate companies. So I, a middle-class person who cannot afford a house, am giving money to my bank who is giving it to real estate companies to buy more apartments. And given how much apartment prices have risen, it seems like my bank made the right call for its customers.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#160

Post by yardstick »

teruakohatu wrote: post #17

New Zealand has a similar housing problem. House prices are skyrocketing and pricing out young people. A 25-30% rise in the past year has meant few people are saving fast enough to get a deposit. But two or three years ago the govt. banned overseas buyers. There is no reason to suggest the ban is not effective. It even bans non-permanent residents, so plenty of legitimate residents (work visas) can't purchase propert…

I’ve talked with a friend in NZ who have recently purchased 5 houses all to rent, all have mortgages, and none in expensive cities (think South Island outside CHCH and Queenstown). They work full time in Auckland in a business they run.

The housing crisis has been this way since at least 2000 or so. It won’t change until:

- Stamp duty for buying rentals / converting to rentals, maybe 10-20%

- Limit the number of existing residential properties a person can own to 5 (no lower than 3). Maybe allow them to buy more than 5 if they pay a high stamp duty (eg 60%).

- No limit to number of new residential properties a person can build (Ie encourage adding new stock to the housing market), so long as it doesn’t involve the demolition of an existing residential property.

- Higher buy to let mortgage deposit requirements on existing properties (maybe 60%?)

- Higher interest on buy to let mortgages (maybe the govt charges an additional 3% on top of the interest as a form of tax)

- Maybe some more draconian stuff like unable to sell a property as a rental if it has been a rental for at least 2 out of the last 10 years. Ie making the only people that could buy it owner-occupiers.

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