Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
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Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#2Seems like he's scrambling, and probably thought his odds were good enough going in without having to bring this up, even though it's probably even a more contentious issue than the pandemic response. With a single-bedroom condo costing between 550 and 750k in the suburbs of Vancouver, people who work locally are leaving for the more affordable pastures of the prairies and taking the work with them if they can.
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#3Serious question. With the borders closed have there even been many foreign home buyers?
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#4[deleted]
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#5Serious question. With the borders closed have there even been many foreign home buyers?
My understanding is that the foreign buyers use the real estate as an investment, so they wouldn't be deterred if they couldn't visit their property in person.
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#6A temporary ban seems like it won't be very impactful in the long term.
Have these sorts of policies, even when permanent, had much of an impact on places where they're implemented? From what I've heard it doesn't seem to have cooled off the market in places like New Zealand
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#7the blame-the-foreigners narrative has always sounded too convenient to be entirely true. People used to love saying this in California, when there clearly are so many other problems with housing like Prop 13 and zoning. Is there any data from reputable sources that actually quantifies this effect?
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#8This is the wrong approach, solving a superficial symptom of a deeper root cause.
The problem is that housing is a commodity, not that foreign persons are purchasing the commodity. I guarantee you that if he follows through on this we'll see enterprising Canadian "entrepreneurs" buying the homes and creating securities to hide the ownership details and then selling those securities abroad.
If the market exists, wealthy folks will find a way to play in that market.
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#9Serious question. With the borders closed have there even been many foreign home buyers?
My understanding is that the foreign buyers use the real estate as an investment, so they wouldn't be deterred if they couldn't visit their property in person.
The same thing is happening here in Australia (foreign investment). Frankly, this might backfire for Trudeau, as yes housing prices are insane, but a lot of voters also own houses. Anything that could now cause prices to drop is seen as a negative and therefore will find voter backlash. Labor in Australia tried something similar at the last election with IIRC removal of negative gearing (tax cuts for investment properties), they lost.
Re: Justin Trudeau Vows Two-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers in Canada Election
#10Maybe I don't know enough about how this works in Canada in particular, but will this do anything? I thought a lot of the issue was from housing as an investment vehicle, and not specifically foreign investment. And are foreign investors really buying the real estate directly, or are they purchasing REITs and the trusts are buying them on their behalf (laundering the "foreignness" of the investment)?
And, as always, what does this do to address housing supply? Are foreigners also restricted from investing in new construction which might actually lower or slow housing costs?