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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

#491

Post by bobthepanda »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #445
ericmay wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that used to be the case and I would have argued as such as early as 2018 w.r.t NIMBY and San Francisco but I think it's becoming less true. Now sure you can buy a trailer in the middle of nowhere in the Nevada desert, but what were previously considered "cheap" houses in places like Des Moines are increasing substantially in price, and that's not just the cool spots either. You might say "Well just rent then…

> as energy costs increase (EVs won't save us) I don't really disagree with your larger point, but I can't help but explore this nit because it seems interesting. I don't think anyone is arguing that EVs will markedly reduce energy prices; however, there is an argument that renewables will decrease energy prices by virtue of being cheaper per unit power. Of course, it will take at least a decade before renewable ener…

It is worth noting that unlike some other energy sectors, unit costs of storage and renewable continue to trend down aggressively.

It’s still not quite so cheap that recycling it makes no economic sense, so if it is possible a way will be figured out sooner or later. (Metal is recyclable because recycling it requires so much less energy than producing it; plastic is super cheap and so is basically never recycled.)

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#492

Post by sefrost »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #461
3qz wrote: post #111

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 f…

Essentially young people will probably need to migrate and start a fresh in some underdeveloped city. I'm a millennial and this seems like it will be the case for me too. The older generations essentially rode a big wave to prosperity, our generations will essentially be riding the wave as it is collapsing, while not quite as bad as the great depression generation, millenials, gen z, alpha will need to build a new. I…

I often wonder if we could start a movement of young people to start afresh elsewhere. We are the workers and the lifeblood of the cities we can't afford. Could we pick a city and move in on it?

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#493

Post by huevosabio »

These are boogieman policies that have zero influence on the root cause.

Foreign investors jump into the housing market because the current system ensures that the supply of housing is limited so it is an attractive way to park your wealth.

But that is not the root cause.

The root cause is the system that is geared to keep houses always appreciating via supply constraints: aggressive zoning, discretionary permitting, NIMBYism.

Until we liberalize zoning, legalize building, and reject the idea that houses have to be appreciating assets, the issue will continue.

As it is often the case, politicians go for the headline with the highest electoral ROI, rather than tackle the real issues.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#494

Post by bobthepanda »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #426
alex_sf wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is plenty of housing for plenty of people in most parts of North America. The 'problem' is that what people _want_ is cheap housing in urban centers, a.k.a cool spots. Because that doesn't exist, we claim to have a housing shortage.

People also want to live where the jobs are, which is increasingly in cities. I expect most small towns are going to die over the next few decades.

I don’t know that people want to live where the jobs are necessarily (although it helps for ease of switching jobs). Personally I think the move to remote work was very overhyped during the pandemic, but it is having an impact on the housing market of smaller areas.

People want to live where the amenities are, and all other things being equal more population can support more diverse sets of amenities. E.g. you need enough gay people in a town to support a regularly open gay bar, and generally speaking people want to have a choice of bars for going out.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#495

Post by bombcar »

matt321 wrote: post #460

The problem with housing costs going up, is that they need to be permanently higher or it will have a bubble burst like effect. Imagine if the state of California did something that cut the real-estate prices down 30%... Well now people who bought when real-estate was 10% lower than the original value are upside down and will panic sell.

This is the quintessential government problem these days - try to deflate the housing bubble without causing a housing crash, but because of how it runs hotter each time even slowing down itself becomes the instigator of the crash.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#496

Post by qeternity »

mrep wrote: post #391
qeternity wrote: post #288

Housing cannot be both affordable and a good investment / retirement plan. Most people's primary savings are the equity in their home. Governments are in for a real sticky treat.

Sure it can, you just need the investment return part to come from the (rent - costs) and not from property price increases. If I have a property where the rent returns 8% after costs, I don't need the property value to increase to make that a good investment.

Ok, it was implied that my comment was about primary residences.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#497

Post by fennecfoxen »

rockbruno wrote: post #453
fennecfoxen wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming corporations is a cute meme, but it's not the problem. Corporations in this market are NOT monopolistic price-setters, they do not have remarkable market-concentration, and they are not colluding with each other to limit supply. They are competitive price-takers. If you want to fix housing prices (or if you just want to screw over these corporations for funsies, which is fine) then you want to increase the su…

This can improve the situation, but I'm not sure if it would truly solve it. I believe the proper solution is to simply ban buying non-commercial buildings as an investment. If you're not living on it, you can't own it. I can't see why one would be against this aside from greediness.

I guess single-family housing will be a privilege reserved to the people who can afford a down payment! That's a pretty sneaky way to do class warfare: cloaking it in the language of justice. I'm almost impressed!

We have a history of similar measures to draw from. In the 1950s lots of people believed that banning single-room occupancy buildings was the proper solution to a lot of problems - they were small! they were inhumane! they are associated with crime! New York City lost about 100,000 units, mostly converted into two-bedroom apartments, occupied by good people™ who belonged in families. "Consequently," said activist George McDonald in the wake of this policy, "people sleep on grates outside."

Maybe your laws won't quite achieve this! But to the extent they enjoy success in influencing housing prices, they will be harming those who cannot afford homes.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#498

Post by bombcar »

bushbaba wrote: post #159
kucukkanat wrote: post #109

We need this so bad in the Netherlands right now! Listing price of a house in Amsterdam 525K, bidding price 641K, someone else with 660K comes and takes it away. Cries in pain after 10th bidding war lost :(

660k is cheap for a SFH these days sadly

It's all about location - https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5620-Newgate-Cir-N-Stillw... seems like quite a lot of house for the price to me, but who knows.

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#499

Post by Pet_Ant »

xedrac wrote: post #382
Pet_Ant wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but if we want to address climate change and protect the environment, then we need to do this without sprawling outwards.

Supply and demand isn't going to change. You can build up instead of out, but I think the point was there's insufficient supply.

Yes, I was suggesting infill over sprawl. Multi family dwellings do not displace more nature than a single family does

Re: Canada bans foreign home buyers for two years

#500

Post by msie »

chucksta wrote: post #459
pembrook wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if 2% of global HNW individuals bought a home in Canada in the last 5 years (and 2% sounds high to me), they'd each have to buy 50 Canadian houses per person to reach that 1,000,000 number.

So 10 houses a year per person of the %2? That still sounds very plausible for high net worth investors, again especially if the purpose is to move/wash/hide cash, which my understanding is, generally is one of those 3 for overseas investments. If they are washing or hiding, they don't care as much about the profit, so it makes sense they would be buying in larger numbers if they can.

Oh brother.
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