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Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#731

Post by pkd »

542458 wrote: post #545
pseudo0 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger issue is the multitude of exceptions. A ban on foreign buyers except for permanent residents, students, and recreational properties isn't much of a ban at all. Canadian permanent residency is incredibly easy to obtain, and students are frequently used as straw purchasers for their foreign parents (just look at the number of UBC students who own multimillion dollar homes despite having zero income). It also…

> Canadian permanent residency is incredibly easy to obtain I don’t feel this is broadly true. I just watched a friend jump though ridiculous hoops and inefficient bureaucracies to get her PR. Is there a particular method for getting a PR that you feel is too easy?

It is not easy. But it is varying levels of hard depending on your background. You are also required to spend over half the year every year in Canada and it expires every five years. I'm not sure why permanent residents shouldn't be exempt when they are literally mandated to be permanently based out of Canada.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#732

Post by adammcnamara »

This is window dressing:

1. Many foreign buyers buy through a child studying in Canada or numbered company.

2. Canada’s immigration (~400,000/year) far outpaces housing completions (~200,000/year, of which only 50,000 are single family homes). Many of these are replacing existing housing stock, too.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#733

Post by incomingpain »

gorjusborg wrote: post #79
incomingpain wrote: post #61

The data is public, less than 5% of homes are going to foreigners. Don't see how they even accomplish banning foreigners when there are free trade and free investment agreements. The problem is that bonds have negative yields. Retirement funds are forced into buying real estate, because housing is a safe investment right? The federal government knows this and knows they can't do anything. If they targeted retirement…

I don't know how real estate market works in Canada, but I can totally see how 5% of buyers could mess up the market in the U.S.. House pricing is set based on 'comps' (comparable homes and the price they sold for). That means that a small percentage of buyers can essentially bump (initial) pricing for all homes.

>I don't know how real estate market works in Canada, but I can totally see how 5% of buyers could mess up the market in the U.S..

5% foreigner owned is not big enough to have an appreciable difference. How about funds buying real estate? What used to be around 10% went to 20% in 2020 and then went to 40% in 2021. Nobody will buy negative yielding bonds. It only leaves a couple other options.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#734

Post by incomingpain »

msie wrote: post #78
incomingpain wrote: post #61

The data is public, less than 5% of homes are going to foreigners. Don't see how they even accomplish banning foreigners when there are free trade and free investment agreements. The problem is that bonds have negative yields. Retirement funds are forced into buying real estate, because housing is a safe investment right? The federal government knows this and knows they can't do anything. If they targeted retirement…

It's amazing to me how some people are so entrenched in believing that foreigners are to blame that they will perform such mental gymnastics. The Myth of 1.3 Million Vacant Investor Homes in Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evYOhpjMql0&t=6s

>It's amazing to me how some people are so entrenched in believing that foreigners are to blame that they will perform such mental gymnastics.

Imagine you're a boomer who is about to retire. You told your advisor to go into safe investments but you're not going into savings accounts, money market, or bonds. Maybe you pick up some corporate bonds? But that's higher risk. Once you eliminate all these negative yielding options... you're really just left with real estate.

Then you look at Canada's economic breakdown. Oil/Gas industry is under constant attack by the federal government. Manufacturing in quebec and ontario has practically died.

The only things holding Canada together economically is Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. FIRE. The only thing holding Canada's economy from being in a depression is banks and insurance on over priced real estate.

As a politician, you dont dare touch the housing market. If that explodes, you take the blame AND you have to actually fix the economy? lol!

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#735

Post by Ensorceled »

earleybird wrote: post #685
Ensorceled wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 yo…

The CRA is fairly particular[0] about income from the sale of a property. They want to know, for example, how long it has been your primary residence and if it was rented before then, what was the appraised value. You will end up paying capital gains on the delta. So, if you've been renting out a property, move in to it for 6 months and then sell you'll be paying capital gains on everything but the last 6 months. The…

The point is that you have changed your principle residence to the new property and, hence, it is not taxed on sale.

"When you change your principal residence to an income producing property, such as a rental or business property, you can make an election not to be considered as having started to use your principal residence as a rental or business property. This means you do not have to report any capital gain when you change its use. "

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individ...

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#736

Post by macspoofing »

nemo44x wrote: post #462
macspoofing wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Clearly all these homes are being bought so it would appear people have the money. Yes ... Back in 2007, people bought homes as well - so everything was OK - rite? By the way, people aren't paying cash for houses.

Why would you pay cash? I made a cash offer on mine but still took out a loan since interest rates are so low. Homes are priced based on what people who want to live in a place are willing to pay per month. The interest rate, property tax rate, and home price determine that. As rates go down prices go up.

>Why would you pay cash? I made a cash offer on mine but still took out a loan since interest rates are so low.

That was a response to your statement that 'people have the money'. The larger point is that just because people are buying houses doesn't mean that things are healthy, case in point: 2007/2008 housing crash, which was preceded by a housing bubble and led to a lot of misery.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#737

Post by macspoofing »

rsync wrote: post #287
macspoofing wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

Fun fact: you can waive your inspection contingency … and then still go inspect the house. Just bring your inspector along to a showing or open house, etc. Owners won’t even be there.

I understand that - but if you're seeing a lot of houses, it gets very expensive very quickly to bring an inspector to every showing.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#738

Post by wdn »

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…

It is supply and demand. If the buyers don't think it worth the price, they wouldn't place the bids.

If you want open bid/ask, there is always the stock/futures/options markets.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#739

Post by exfascist »

ashtonkem wrote: post #621
CRConrad wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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!

When you're spending twice the time traveling it cuts into time that was otherwise productive. You can't spend all your time relaxing.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#740

Post by pyuser583 »

aspenmayer wrote: post #673
pyuser583 wrote: post #577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Antisocial behavior on public transit isn’t just a matter of policing and funding. It’s also a matter of civil liberties. In California, people have a constitutional right to defecate on the streets. In was once in a San Francisco bus and watched a young woman of West Asian descent break down in tears because a homeless man was calling her a “sand n***”. She screamed back at him the Trump was going to put him in a co…

I think that's just a think that happens where people are, and the more people you run into in your travels, the higher the likelihood that you'll run into them. Public transit is one of the few public spaces we have left, ironically. Perhaps especially so post-Covid. I think that it's worth the investments necessary to make it usable. You can't blame public transit for the lack of effectiveness of homeless programs,…

It isn’t just a funding issue. In most countries what I described would be illegal.

In America it’s protected.

We have a jurisprudence that allows Neo-Nazis to March through Jewish neighborhoods.

Our public sphere is extremely permissive. So permissive that avoiding the public sphere is necessary to avoid anti-social behavior.

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