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Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#481

Post by imtringued »

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…

It's the real estate equivalent of blaming immigrants for stealing jobs.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#482

Post by johndubchak »

wk_end wrote: post #371
52-6F-62 wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Densification is absolutely not unpopular with municipal voters! My current city, Hamilton, is currently fighting with the Ontario government over this matter. The mayor is a regular feature on the local news and speaks to that often. Their major push is for more density and resources for urban development. The provincial government has pushed for developing in Ontario's green belt and watershed instead. They've face…

Everywhere is different. Hamilton may be in favour of densification - I wouldn’t know - but even in Toronto, where I’m from, there’s endless pushback against densifying the single family homes that dominate much of the city. Right now I live in Victoria, and although many people and groups (including the mayor and the province) are pro-development, there’s a loud contingent of busybodies here who oppose literally any…

That doesn't only exist in Victoria and that busy-body group isn't only about building and housing. They are active against many things. I live in California and they complain about people walking down the street, water restrictions, lifting water restrictions, cleaning your driveway with water, not being able to use water, it goes on and on.

It does touch on building, but it's mostly about, "NOT IN MY BACKYARD!"

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#484

Post by homonculus1 »

8note wrote: post #470
heyitsanewacco wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is because Realtors are crooks. That's about it. We also had to tack down assignment clauses so that realtors wouldn't re-sell their client's houses for more and pocket the difference. I also want to see mandatory home inspection, seems common sense.

I'm more interested in mandatory house inspections at a regular intervals, rather than as part of a sale.

Ew, nobody needs more mandatory red tape for their private property. Busybodies like you make life a hellish nightmare of compliance with crushing systems that bloat their way into every facet of life. What you are describing is megalomania by slices.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#485

Post by definitelyhuman »

michael1999 wrote: post #282
ch4s3 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I'm all for building more houses in cities/high demand areas, but doesn't Canada only have a populati…

Canada is a big country. But immigration goes where the jobs are, and those are concentrated in 3-5 large cities which are hitting the limits of sprawl (congested highway commute time) and geography (water and mountains). Densification is unpopular with existing municipal voters, and bankrupting CPP would be unpopular with federal voters.

Waterloo region is building density, despite complaints (1), because there’s no supply. People claim to want all of: affordable housing, no sprawl, no community impact - but that’s not possible. Glad they prioritized units, although a lot are still condos which are not quite ‘affordable’, but the supply will help

(1) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/belmont-vi...

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#486

Post by arrosenberg »

tomatowurst wrote: post #468
arrosenberg wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, one group of people got rich and now a different group of have-nots are mad at the people left holding the land. That is not an uncommon historical trope. That has nothing to do with what I said - unoccupied mansions on valuable land are an economic crime against the average person. If you want to blame that on zoning laws, you’d probably be correct in many cases, but its also a taxation issue. I’m not from Vanc…

> Yes, one group of people got rich and now a different group of have-nots are mad at the people left holding the land. Very much so and it probably stings even more for that have-not group, that its people from what they perceive to be of "third world origin". There's just no helping such people, instead of seeking ways to better themselves, they choose to live in a state of angst and anger and expect the government…

You seem pretty obsessed with xenophobia, but its really just easier to target wealthy foreigners than wealthy domestics. This is a class and land use issue - the have nots don’t need to “better themselves” (nor do they need the implied patrimony in that statement), they need homes on affordable mortgages. The government can do that! We know they can, because they have before, you just need the land. Oh look, some unoccupied mansions…

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#487

Post by cameronh90 »

exfascist wrote: post #461
ashtonkem wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are all the major cities in the western world seemingly hitting this limit at the same time, even though they all have different populations? I can’t speak for Canada, but in America the answer is always cars. Car based transit is wildly land inefficient, and the main reason why all car based cities hit their limit at the same time. In particular there are two huge shortcomings with cars in urban design: 1. Par…

So I hate driving and actually moved to DC for work and also partly for the transit. Here's what I found: 1) Taking the metro many places (for example, from my apartment in an urban "luxury" apartment building a couple blocks from the initial station to my boat near the waterfront in downtown DC) doubled the time it took to get there. It was actually faster to drive there even during rush hour where you'll sit motion…

Almost everything you're saying is a symptom of poor investment in public transport. I have no doubt that the car works better for your commute, as is the case for millions of other people. Unfortunately, stick millions of cars on the road and you have a huge bottleneck for growing the commuter belt, which means only houses in a relatively small area are useful, and they get extremely expensive.

Historically, and in some countries still, we solved this problem by identifying when it was happening and creating new public transport lines for faster commutes and people living further out. In the UK, we even developed whole "New Towns", upgraded their transport, amenities and infrastructure specifically to support shuttling a greater number of people into London. They weren't particularly inspiring towns, and we still make fun of them nearly a century later - but it worked. Even today, it's far quicker to take the train into London from those towns than it is to drive, as is the case for pretty much all suburb to central commuting here.

There are still lots of situations where a car will be better (I have one too, in London), but if we can get people out of their cars for their commutes, that frees cities up to expand and useful houses will become more affordable. Driving to the tip or mall is much less of a problem.

Regarding the violence and antisocial behaviour, that's really a problem of policing and allocation of funding. It needn't be that way and it doesn't happen to nearly the same extent in the UK and I put that down at least partially to the excellent British Transport Police. Apparently it used to be violent and dangerous in the 80s but we turned it around. Now the train stations are mostly far safer than the surrounding environs. If I was ever being harassed or attacked, I would run towards the station as there would most likely be someone to help me there. Living within a few minutes of a train station also significantly increases your property value here, provided you're not so close that it rattles your bed...

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#488

Post by ashtonkem »

voisin wrote: post #424
cameronh90 wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Canada's largest urban area is 5.6 million people. London, Paris and Seoul are around double that, NYC is 19 million and Tokyo is 37 million. Why are Canadian cities hitting this limit at such a comparati…

Car culture. It is insanely inefficient at moving people and at land use.

It’s amazing how many downvotes pointing this out gets. People have quite the kneejerk reaction when the downsides of car transit are pointed out to them.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#489

Post by Melatonic »

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…

So.......built up in big cities? Isn't that what a big city is supposed to have in the first place?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#490

Post by hnlmorg »

exfascist wrote: post #461
ashtonkem wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are all the major cities in the western world seemingly hitting this limit at the same time, even though they all have different populations? I can’t speak for Canada, but in America the answer is always cars. Car based transit is wildly land inefficient, and the main reason why all car based cities hit their limit at the same time. In particular there are two huge shortcomings with cars in urban design: 1. Par…

So I hate driving and actually moved to DC for work and also partly for the transit. Here's what I found: 1) Taking the metro many places (for example, from my apartment in an urban "luxury" apartment building a couple blocks from the initial station to my boat near the waterfront in downtown DC) doubled the time it took to get there. It was actually faster to drive there even during rush hour where you'll sit motion…

The problem is you’re comparing the commute by public transport in the current status quo and missing the point that fixing the car culture means improving public transport so that it does become more convenient than taking the car.

Plenty of European cities have achieved this. I work in London and I wouldn’t even dream of driving into the city. It’s far more convenient to get the train.

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