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Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

bloomberg.com

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Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#221

Post by ipaddr »

slg wrote: post #189
bennysomething wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the root cause is supply, demand, the salaries of buyers, interest rates and multiple of salary for mortgages permitted by law.

Those are downstream effects of the problem with housing being an investment. We don't want prices to go down so we don't build enough supply. The policies that make housing a good investment increase demand from speculators and investors above the natural need for housing. There are all sorts of subsidies that exist to give people more money to buy housing instead of trying to make housing actually cheaper. Interest…

Where are you building these houses in the protected Oak Ridges Moran? Building requires space to begin with.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#222

Post by AzzieElbab »

FpUser wrote: post #153
AzzieElbab wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are missing the fact that for many Canadians values of their homes represent their live savings. So while homeownership remains high in Canada doing something substantial about re prices would ruin peoples lives.

And ruin lives for everyone who did not manage to buy house when it was affordable. Fuck that. Just in case, I do own the house.

Do you have a mortgage too? Would you be happy owing the bank more than your property is worth?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#223

Post by gregable »

macspoofing wrote: post #163
boplicity wrote: post #88

> During last year’s election campaign, Trudeau’s party also proposed a ban on “blind bidding” for houses -- the prevailing system by which offers are kept secret when someone is auctioning a home. This is such a huge deal. Anyone who has had to go through the process of buying a home through a bidding war knows how unfair and one-sided this process is. It take a high-pressure emotional situation, and gives all of th…

>This is such a huge deal. Is it though? I chatted with someone from Australia which has open bidding and you know what .. houses still went way over reserve. At the end of the day, if you have 20+ offers on a house, you're not getting that house without destroying your budget, no matter how you set up the bid system. The common sense change I wanted to see implemented was to prevent the waiving of a home inspection…

I'm not sure why "amount over reserve / list" is a meaningful metric. It's clear that in a lot of cases the list prices are intentionally below market to attract more bidders and produce the appearance of more competition at open houses and the like.

It's a very manipulated and manipulable metric.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#224

Post by joshlemer »

hello_popppet wrote: post #214

We all know that on an intuitive level, housing can never be affordable again in the West. At least in the areas that are currently out of reach for most people. The outlands, maybe, remain inhabitable but far removed from major cities. There’s no policy out there that will, by the time you wake up tomorrow, bridge the twenty-fold gap between what majority of people in the country make and what an apartment (never mi…

Nonsense. It is simple supply and demand. If we build on a scale not seen for generations, and eliminate tax benefits to owning (the principal residence tax exemption), then prices will come down.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#225

Post by ipaddr »

glouwbug wrote: post #178
arcticbull wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, about 70% of Canadians are homeowners (almost 15% higher homeownership rate than in the US). Ideally, they find a way to keep home price growth at/below inflation for a few years rather than actually pulling prices down directly. There's very little appetite for reducing the notional price since that 70% is broadly "most voters."

Doesn't the 70% ownership stat include those living with their parents? I have friends at 30 who still live with their parents.

Those kids will get that house passed down to them.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#226

Post by llbeansandrice »

davidw wrote: post #140
VincentEvans wrote: post #7

I don’t know the specifics on Canadian real estate market and the specifics of the problems there, but based on my understanding of the problems facing your neighbors to the south - I feel like it’s almost an attempt to appease citizens by blaming the issue on “foreigners” (always a move that is popular with politicians) to redirect attention from the much more likely cause - massive investments made by hedge funds,…

> massive investments made by hedge funds, private capital, REITs I can't recommend this article enough on that subject: https://www.vox.com/22524829/wall-street-housing-market-blac... "The role of institutional investors is still being studied, but the popularity of the narrative strikes at something dangerous: People want a convenient boogeyman and when they get it, they often ignore the structural problems that ar…

I feel like both of these things can be problems.

If you view housing and ownership of your domicile as something that should be accessible to people, then housing necessarily cannot be viewed as an investment vehicle and large corporations, REITs, wallstreet, etc. need to be excluded so that more supply can be available to "correct" buyers.

Limiting these groups does help on the supply-side. While it may not be the root cause, it's far better than showering the demand-side with cash like tax breaks for first-time home buyers.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#227

Post by gregable »

AzzieElbab wrote: post #121
boplicity wrote: post #88

> During last year’s election campaign, Trudeau’s party also proposed a ban on “blind bidding” for houses -- the prevailing system by which offers are kept secret when someone is auctioning a home. This is such a huge deal. Anyone who has had to go through the process of buying a home through a bidding war knows how unfair and one-sided this process is. It take a high-pressure emotional situation, and gives all of th…

I think people are missing the fact that for many Canadians values of their homes represent their live savings. So while homeownership remains high in Canada doing something substantial about re prices would ruin peoples lives.

Not doing something about it eventually ruins the community and then takes the life savings away in an even more dramatic crash.

Canadian Real Estate is pretty clearly in bubble territory. Something can happen now or later, but it only gets worse with time.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#228

Post by dfas23 »

boplicity wrote: post #88

> During last year’s election campaign, Trudeau’s party also proposed a ban on “blind bidding” for houses -- the prevailing system by which offers are kept secret when someone is auctioning a home. This is such a huge deal. Anyone who has had to go through the process of buying a home through a bidding war knows how unfair and one-sided this process is. It take a high-pressure emotional situation, and gives all of th…

I'm not so sure.

We're currently hunting for houses, and lost out on a few listings because we didn't want to overbid. When the sold price was revealed, SO many times we'd think DAMN, we'd prob pay $10-$25K on top of that to get it had we known..

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#230

Post by swframe2 »

I don't think companies buying up homes are acting in the public's best interests. I think we should require companies like zillow to build the homes they sell. They shouldn't be allowed to buy existing homes unless it is to repair low income homes for low income buyers.
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