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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

#621

Post by ashtonkem »

CRConrad wrote: post #557
exfascist wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> and b: now I can't use that time for anything other than programming projects. Read a book.

Right? I genuinely don’t understand why “I want my commute to be more pleasant” isn’t a more common answer. Not everything has to be productive!

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#623

Post by digianarchist »

joshlemer wrote: post #164

We need to end or put limits on the Primary Residence Capital Gains Tax Exemption which is uncapped in Canada, unlike the cap of 200k in USA. It is unfair to renters and it is leading to insane housing prices. It is unfair to renters because renters do not have an equivalent 100%, completely unlimited tax-free investment vehicle. We have Tax-Free Savings Accounts, limited to ~$5k contribution per year, and we have RR…

I think banning, or severely restricting, HELOCs is a better idea. Canada also doesn't have inheritance taxes or a wealth tax.

The problem with taxing primary residencies is that homeowners aren't usually selling their homes to exit the market, they're upgrading or downgrading.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#624

Post by dheera »

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…

A better plan would be to increase the friction to buy a home without actually living in it, and tax the living shit out of homes that are empty and not occupied by anyone at all most of the time.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#625

Post by robocat »

kazinator wrote: post #552
robocat wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_equivalence Auction theory has so many assumptions that it really can’t be applied to buying a home. The link above assumes the highest bidder knows[1] the highest price the underbidder would pay, which is extremely silly. Apart from the fact that if you know the highest price of another bidder, then the seller also probably knows your highest price, and the seller can just ask…

Most of the people crying foul over the blind real estate bids have no idea about auction theory and what those assumptions are, and who is favored by the ways in which those assumptions do not hold, and how much. > The link above assumes the highest bidder knows the price of the underbidder, which is silly The first price auction and second price auction types are understood to be sealed bid. The English auction is…

I think you are making sweeping statements. In particular, the link you gave looks to be harmfully misleading in relation to blind auctions for houses.

In my experience academic auction theory is almost irrelevant when buying a house. I do have a close friend who designs huge market trading systems, so I will talk to them and validate my opinion.

In practice, house transactions appear to be driven by irrational or ignorant participants (vendors, other bidders, agents, banks, insurance companies) and sometimes understanding those factors can give you a significant edge in the market. Also every house transaction has different context, risks and it’s own unique factors, so it is very difficult to make generalised rules.

Disclaimer: I know little about auction theory, and I have only spent a few years trying to understand one tiny property market, so my opinions are not that valuable.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#626

Post by sacrosancty »

New Zealand did that years ago. It did nothing for price increases but at least it shut up some of the populist screeching. Price increases seem to have finally stopped and you know how? The government tightened the lending rules so regular first home buyers and owner-occupiers can't get such a big loan anymore. Those people were the problem all along but nobody wanted to blame them. They were supposed to be the victims.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#627

Post by throwaway2037 »

cameronh90 wrote: post #392
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,…

> 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…

It is interesting that you did not mention Los Angeles (and Orange County) and the special hell of car traffic in that region. The places that you picked have world-class mass transport that provide viable alternatives to driving.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#628

Post by digianarchist »

thrwy_ywrht wrote: post #108

I know HN is not the place for glibness, but literally: just build more homes. Everything else is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Zoning reform is the answer.

The feds don't really get a say in home building, it's up to the provinces like Ontario who aren't really feeling the pressure to do anything, after rejecting the most impactful recommendations from a recent task force on affordability [1].

The NIMBY mayors of cities such as Mississauga pushed back [2] and the province has effectively backed down.

[1] - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-doug-ford-hou...

[2] - https://twitter.com/BonnieCrombie/status/1507080290602299392

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#629

Post by philliphaydon »

sacrosancty wrote: post #626

New Zealand did that years ago. It did nothing for price increases but at least it shut up some of the populist screeching. Price increases seem to have finally stopped and you know how? The government tightened the lending rules so regular first home buyers and owner-occupiers can't get such a big loan anymore. Those people were the problem all along but nobody wanted to blame them. They were supposed to be the vict…

Because there’s no reason for prices to drop yet. There’s 3 issues. Foreigners buying houses. Locals buying multiple properties. And supply. 1 of those issues is resolved.

The government promised 10k houses. It’s done something like 500? There’s no houses on the cheap for people to buy to push prices down. But many people trying to buy and rent that sellers and landlords are upping prices.

Atleast locals will haggle a price. The foreigners buying were paying above market prices despite never setting foot in the country.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#630

Post by phkahler »

sacrosancty wrote: post #626

New Zealand did that years ago. It did nothing for price increases but at least it shut up some of the populist screeching. Price increases seem to have finally stopped and you know how? The government tightened the lending rules so regular first home buyers and owner-occupiers can't get such a big loan anymore. Those people were the problem all along but nobody wanted to blame them. They were supposed to be the vict…

>> The government tightened the lending rules so regular first home buyers and owner-occupiers can't get such a big loan anymore.

Agree, but don't single out first time buyers. Easy money is what causes the prices to rise regardless of who is buying. In the US lower interest rates lead to tons of ads for refinancing, and some people refi AND take out some cash to spend.

Home prices vary inversely to interest rates.

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