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Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#641

Post by elevaet »

davidw wrote: post #132
ameminator wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's not the immigrants' fault - it's the government's fault. At the end of the day, this confluence of circumstances is its responsibility. The combination of low interest rates, no expansive public transport projects, no action on money-laundering, hurdles in supply (as you mentioned) - and yes, expansive immigration policies (Canada had the highest population growth in the G7, mostly due to immigration [0]).…

Here where I live, the people who show up at hearings to stop homes from being built are all wealthy-ish local people. Not immigrants, not some faceless government, not BlackRock, but our neighbors.

I have a close family member who works in municipal planning, and it's exactly what you describe.

Wealthy-ish, semiretired older local people, or non-locals with vacation property who do everything they can to shut down any kind of housing project. Their methods include suing the town at great expense to the taxpayers and floating their own and sympathetic friends into town council.

It's extremely frustrating when a really well designed development that takes a year and millions to craft can get shut down in a single meeting by a very loud, adamant and group of busybodies.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#642

Post by philliphaydon »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #217

Read the small print: The foreign-buyer ban won’t apply to students, foreign workers or foreign citizens who are permanent residents of Canada, the person said. They did this stunt here in New Zealand too, where "foreigners" excluded Australian Citizens, Singaporean citizens, and permanent residents. Anyway, prepare for the media (and public, because the media determines how we talk) to use the term "foreign buyer ba…

They couldn’t exclude Australia and Singapore due to existing trade agreements.

Having lived in singapore for 10 years tho people there seem far more interested in moving to australia to live.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#643

Post by dghlsakjg »

TuringNYC wrote: post #589
FredPret wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this is true and bad but the Canadian market is primarily driven by supply issues, not red tape. There just aren’t enough houses/condos. The resulting price boom isn’t a mere 5-10% increase, but hundreds of percent over the course of only 5-10 years. I’ve seen condo prices double three times in five years in places.

>> All this is true and bad but the Canadian market is primarily driven by supply issues, not red tape. My point is that if you reduce the red tape (and deadweight loss) there are actually people who want to sell, but wont sell if they are losing a ton of money on the sale. Reduce the loss and more supply appears. In the US this is a huge issue. If you switch cities twice and sell each time, your entire downpayment h…

That isn’t what’s happening in the Canadian market is what we’re telling you.

It is not that there are people that aren’t selling, it’s that there aren’t enough houses for the number of people in the country. House prices have risen enough to cover all of the fees, except that there is nowhere in the country you can move to where this isn’t happening.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#644

Post by bobkazamakis »

CountSessine wrote: post #335
FerociousTimes wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To summarize, you argue that it's a supply-side problem and not a demand-side one.

To summarize, you argue that it's a supply-side problem and not a demand-side one. That is not an accurate summary. Earlier... 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

People love to talk about cutting back immigration and how it'll magically solve housing problems when it only slightly reduces the demand. You'll never see any kind of valuation thrown, just good fee fees about keeping our jobs.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#645

Post by ehsankia »

kbenson wrote: post #520
CountSessine wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> You're fighting scarcity. No, they're fighting market inefficiency. A free market requires accurate and timely information to be efficient. This is literally people putting constraints on the market for what they are selling so the information is not available to one side, and the price is inflated. A rational actor should walk away from a system like this, but if that's all that's available around you because of s…

Market inefficiency would add an x% overhead on the price, but it doesn't uncontrollably increase the price. That's scarcity.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#646

Post by rapind »

imtringued wrote: post #481
davidw wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Not even remotely. Immigrants can buy a home. This is about foreign ownership (not a primary residence).

Foreign ownership is just one problem though, and IMO a smaller one than both cheap debt and lack of supply.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#647

Post by daxfohl »

daxfohl wrote: post #63

Why is foreign investment in Canada real estate so big vs the US? Is it just a pyramid scheme or something, or are investors actually making use of the properties?

My takeaway after reading all the other comments is that nobody knows, but everybody has someone to blame.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#648

Post by I-M-S »

Afton wrote: post #317
CountSessine wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've mistaken me for someone who thinks there's a political needle that can be threaded here. I completely agree with you - housing prices are high, mechanically, because of scarcity. But scarcity exists because voters like high housing prices. The truth is that most Canadians own property and are perfectly happy with their $1-3 million in equity. And regardless of their stated preferences for affordable housing, t…

Having grown up poor, I was going to challenge the statement that 'most Canadians own property', but it looks like it's ~70%. I mean, I think hanging 30% of your population out to dry is a bad idea, but I can't argue that this isn't a tyranny of the majority situation (or maybe tyranny of those in power, of which I expect closer to 100% are property owners).

This is an ad nauseam repeated false statistic. That number counts household members - meaning ~70% of population owns property when you account children in those households (and grandparents). And those children are definitely going to need homes of their own... Or I guess you'll have situation akin to one in my home country where >60% of 25-34 y.o. young adults live with their parents, with all the economic and psychological stunted development that entails.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#649

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

TuringNYC wrote: post #572
crooked-v wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the market efficiency in the world won't stop the continual increase in prices from bad zoning and missing middle housing.

>> All the market efficiency in the world won't stop the continual increase in prices from bad zoning and missing middle housing. I disagree. Depending on the jurisdiction (in the US), part of the issue is the 10% net loss you end up with. 5-6% on the agent fee(s), another 1% on "mansion tax", in NYS/NYC there is a 1% and 1% transfer tax and 1/2% mortgage tax. Different jurisdictions are less (or more). Throw in more…

If the broker fee isn't worth it, then sell your house yourself. It's not that hard, but it's not zero work either. In addition, it's increasingly likely that many modern transactions involve a buyer and a seller broker, reducing their commission to half of whatever you pay.

I've sold 3 houses myself, and bought 3 without a broker.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#650

Post by LAC-Tech »

philliphaydon wrote: post #642
LAC-Tech wrote: post #217

Read the small print: The foreign-buyer ban won’t apply to students, foreign workers or foreign citizens who are permanent residents of Canada, the person said. They did this stunt here in New Zealand too, where "foreigners" excluded Australian Citizens, Singaporean citizens, and permanent residents. Anyway, prepare for the media (and public, because the media determines how we talk) to use the term "foreign buyer ba…

They couldn’t exclude Australia and Singapore due to existing trade agreements. Having lived in singapore for 10 years tho people there seem far more interested in moving to australia to live.

I'm not talking about what the justifications are. I'm talking about how the media decided it was a 'foreign buyer ban' despite very obviously not being one.
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