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Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

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Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#111

Post by 3qz »

The country is ruined for non owners and it will never get better. The only options left are moving to the prairies or living in a neo-feudal shithole. This is only being introduced so they can officially give up after pretending to fix anything.

Quality of life has almost nothing to do with income anymore so it’s impossible to work for a better future. Being born 5 years later is the difference between tax free, 6 figure equity gains every year, or renting forever. Boomer janitors are richer than a new Dr. will ever be. The system is broken.

Pray for the collapse

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#112

Post by throw0101a »

krageon wrote: post #40
eru wrote: post #24

This is really, really stupid. It reeks of economic illiteracy. If you think foreign investor cause harm, just estimate how much harm it is, and tax them accordingly. Why would you ban them? Taxing is almost always more economically efficient than banning. You can even pay out (part of) the tax take to the people you think are harmed. (In general, a land value tax for everyone would be a good idea. But if political r…

It's not about the "economy", it's about people being able to buy a roof over their head. Foreign investors simply don't belong in that space at all.

> Foreign investors simply don't belong in that space at all.

How much is this a problem?

Further, this does not (IIRC) apply to folks to have permanent residence status or folks here on things like student visas.

So how many never-set-foot-in-Canada people are buying properties?

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#113

Post by pards »

iefbr14 wrote: post #4

So why don't they build more homes?

This the answer. The rate of population growth in major cities like Toronto isn't keeping up with the housing supply. Our cities should be building more high- and medium-density housing, and public transit to support this population.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#114

Post by dale_glass »

hrdwdmrbl wrote: post #90
Bilal_io wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, and I honestly wish there were measures to fine owners that have empty homes as well. Many people would disagree with me, but to me it's not about economics. We need a way to fight the idea of hoarding homes, a basic human right, as being an "investment".

If there was enough supply there wouldn't be a problem. No one hoards cars, boats, airplanes or anything else because they think that they can corner the market and raise prices. Housing is only special because not enough is built. It's only possible to "hoard" because every 1 off the market is less for everyone else. A fixed pie. Like bitcoin. If the bitcoin supply was infinite no one would think about collecting th…

You can't have enough supply of housing, because for housing location matters a lot.

There's only so much room in the center of the capital, and making more costs a titanic amount of effort. Even that runs out eventually, as you can only build so high.

Otherwise, why would we be having a problem? Move to Serbia and buy an apartment for $40K.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#115

Post by koolba »

pards wrote: post #98

I'm a homeowner in Toronto and I don't think this will help. They've eliminated a small number of buyers from the market but have added other incentives like a first home buyers tax credit that will only fuel the fire - Australia tried this with tragic results. >> working with provinces and territories to develop and implement a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights and bring forward a national plan to end blind bidding. Blind…

> IMHO blind bidding is an unethical practice that should be outlawed regardless of its impact on housing prices.

Why? There’s no special virtue ascribed to the purchaser v.s. the seller.

Nothing stops the purchasers from standing in front of the property and publicly announcing their bids (outside of game theory). If they’re bidding less than they are willing to pay, then de facto they’re low balling the seller. There’s no gun to their head to purchase a particular house.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#116

Post by deskamess »

dmalik wrote: post #38
tici_88 wrote: post #34

Foreigners, especially the billionaire type, can and have been setting up shell corporations through which to purchase Canadian real estate. The proposed measure will do nothing to stop this practice. The measures proposed by the Canadian government are likely just political posturing and indented to "pull the wool over the eyes" of Canadian voters because the housing bubble/crisis has reached epic proportions and ev…

This is correct. The Beaverton has a good satirical article that gave me a chuckle talking about this. https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/04/canada-to-ban-foreign-h...

The Beaverton has been hitting it out of the park recently.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#117

Post by chx »

iefbr14 wrote: post #4

So why don't they build more homes?

In Vancouver, the problem is rampant NIMBYism.

We have single family homes in ton of places where there should be low rises but zoning doesn't allow for it.

Indeed, the solution would be to take away zoning power from the city into provincial or even federal hands and let housing be more dense where the taxpayers already paid for rapid transit. Look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonds_station_(SkyTrain) this is not even a particularly busy station and it has 4M passengers and these two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renfrew_station together has barely more than half of that.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#118

Post by hallway_monitor »

jlahp wrote: post #107

I appreciate an effort, but how can a student afford a house ? Is it possible that a rich parents can invest in properties through their kids on a student visa?

A student is not meant to purchase a house. They can live on campus or rent. I don't see any reason for an exception here.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#120

Post by 3qz »

koolba wrote: post #115
pards wrote: post #98

I'm a homeowner in Toronto and I don't think this will help. They've eliminated a small number of buyers from the market but have added other incentives like a first home buyers tax credit that will only fuel the fire - Australia tried this with tragic results. >> working with provinces and territories to develop and implement a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights and bring forward a national plan to end blind bidding. Blind…

> IMHO blind bidding is an unethical practice that should be outlawed regardless of its impact on housing prices. Why? There’s no special virtue ascribed to the purchaser v.s. the seller. Nothing stops the purchasers from standing in front of the property and publicly announcing their bids (outside of game theory). If they’re bidding less than they are willing to pay, then de facto they’re low balling the seller. The…

The real estate agents operate as a cartel and wouldn’t accept offers this way.
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