Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#351

Post by tqi » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:48 PM UTC

Spivak wrote: post #29

tqi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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) Yeah the Right loves to blame poor foreigners while the Left prefers to blame rich foreigners but at the end of the day they at least agree that it is never the voters themselves who are to blame.

Weird, I know the left likes to blame the rich, but I’ve never seen specifically rich foreigners. Also for real how can the voters (ie the average citizen) be the problem? The average citizen has no money and no political or regulatory power. The average citizen just exists in a system they have no control over and responds to incentives. Hoping that en mass people won’t do that is like politely asking a river to mov…

Well for housing in particular, average voters are the ones supporting restrictive zoning and stalling new housing.

While I agree that getting people to change their mind is pretty hopeless, I dislike the framing that they are just "responding to incentives" and therefore not only off the hook for the shitty outcomes of their choices, but also not responsible for the choices themselves.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#352

Post by Ensorceled » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:49 PM UTC

manbackharry wrote: post #325

Ensorceled wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are at the point where foreign and Canadian speculation in housing is making housing totally unaffordable for the vast majority of Canadians. In a country of less than 40 million, it's pretty easy to swamp our markets. We need to take speculation out of the marketplace. I'd also like to see a ban on corporations purchasing private homes and significant tax increases on non principle residences.

Your last line is pretty much my exact opinion. I'm an idiot, but I struggle to see how significant taxes (and I mean SIGNIFICANT - something like having all rental income and cap gains on secondary residences taxed at the highest rate ~54%) in these cases wouldn't have extremely broad appeal. Make the sector unappealing as an investment class and you should stop seeing unfettered speculation. The idea of housing bei…

> I'm an idiot, but I struggle to see how significant taxes in these cases wouldn't have extremely broad appeal.

It would have broad appeal, but not to the developers etc. that are buying 10K plates at fundraising dinners ...

> The principal residence tax exemption is also a joke

The problem is that without that exemption, you literally can't afford to move. The 6% "tax" for real estate fees are already painful if you are trying to move to a house of the same value in another city, but if 40-50% of your sale value was considered a capital gain ...

The real problem is people "moving into" rentals for 6 months and then declaring that their principle residence and selling the property. Once you start renting it should be forever be a business property.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#353

Post by paconbork » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:50 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #324

techsupporter wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's what the person you replied to mean when they wrote: > hitting the limits of sprawl (congested highway commute time) There's only so far you can bus, train, drive, bike, walk, seaplane, helicopter, hyperloop, or transporter in to go to work. Canadian cities are, just like cities in the US, hitting this limit rather aggressively. In cities where sprawl isn't physically prohibitive, like Calgary or Toronto,…

> I know someone who commutes from Kitchener to Toronto on GO, so they don't even have to put up with driving, and they're debating moving back home to Winnipeg for a 40% salary cut just to not have to put up with it any more. Isn't this a good thing in some ways or maybe many/all ways? Now wealth is less concentrated in one or a few locations. Every dollar not spent commuting is a dollar spent at a local coffee shop…

In theory, yes it would be nice to have the wealth more spread out, but jobs aren't concentrated in Toronto just for lack of creativity. The agglomeration of talent causes firms to be more productive, earn more money, and pay employees more. If a company moves to Winnipeg, the lose some access to the most productive employees and their employees have fewer companies to move to where they'll be more productive themselves.

So while you'd be spending a larger percentage of your money locally, you'd also be spending less money in absolute terms.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#354

Post by jl2718 » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

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…

There’s also the possibility of using homomorphic encryption to make it blind on both sides.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#355

Post by edgyquant » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

techsupporter wrote: post #309

edgyquant wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can they not move to nearby cities and commute?

No, that's what the person you replied to mean when they wrote: > hitting the limits of sprawl (congested highway commute time) There's only so far you can bus, train, drive, bike, walk, seaplane, helicopter, hyperloop, or transporter in to go to work. Canadian cities are, just like cities in the US, hitting this limit rather aggressively. In cities where sprawl isn't physically prohibitive, like Calgary or Toronto,…

Then shouldn’t the government be incentivizing businesses (and thus people) populate other cities?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#356

Post by irrational » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

I expect Canada to become prime real estate as climate change worsens. This is smart to start getting in front of it now.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#357

Post by Ensorceled » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:52 PM UTC

qball wrote: post #298

Ensorceled wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are at the point where foreign and Canadian speculation in housing is making housing totally unaffordable for the vast majority of Canadians. In a country of less than 40 million, it's pretty easy to swamp our markets. We need to take speculation out of the marketplace. I'd also like to see a ban on corporations purchasing private homes and significant tax increases on non principle residences.

>I'd also like to see a ban on corporations purchasing private homes and significant tax increases on non principle residences. This would actually solve the problem (the calls are coming from inside the house- foreign investment is merely a scapegoat), and as such it won't be done.

Foreign ownership is a problem, especially in some markets, but I agree it's not the only problem, nor the biggest problem.

But any step forward is a win.

Thank your MP and ask them to solve the next problem: Canadian corporate ownership.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#358

Post by legulere » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:53 PM UTC

CountSessine wrote: post #174

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…

You're fighting scarcity. You still won't win the bidding war - it just won't be as one-sided. Stop championing scarcity by blaming scapegoats. Either we limit Canada's crazy-high immigration rate (1% of population every year) or we build more homes which is mostly gated by illiberal zoning laws passed by municipalities. But both of these policies are very popular so you'll be swimming upstream, politically. While yo…

No it’s just classic abuse of power what’s described. Information asymmetry is one of the classic reasons for market failure.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#359

Post by slg » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:53 PM UTC

JacobThreeThree wrote: post #308

slg wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada, famously a country with no free space. Even if the problem was a lack of space, building denser is always an option and none of the big Canadian cities are really overflowing due to population density.

You kid, but 90% of land in Canada is crown land. Nobody is allowed to own it.

Which would still leave more land than exists in France, Germany, UK, Italy, Japan, and numerous other countries with larger populations.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#360

Post by _smmt » Thu, Apr 07, 2022, 7:53 PM UTC

Zero teeth. Why would it? Everyone here is a rich homeowner. Anyone who thinks anything will be done about housing is absolutely dreaming. Build more homes, housing gets cheaper, boomers lose their HELOC's, and we're in for a world of hurt. It's over.