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Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#51

Post by smnrchrds »

ls15 wrote: post #2

This seems like a good idea and it carves out exceptions for foreigners who are residents. I presume this puts pressure on other countries to do the same, since investors are looking for other opportunities.

It is important to note that according to Canadian law, permanent residents (equivalent to green card holders in the US) are not considered foreign nationals. They enjoy roughly the same rights and privileges as Canadian citizens, with very limited exceptions such as voting, running for office, serving as a jury, and some high-level government positions.

> Foreign national: A person who is not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident.

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship/he...

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#52

Post by dmix »

kennend3 wrote: post #17
pestatije wrote: post #7

In Spain they'll give a residency permit to foreigners buying a home over 500k euros.

This is where Canada's new law gets really weird. We also have an "investment" class visa and almost everyone who has used this bought a house to meet the "minimum requirements" https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=653... So.. earlier they encouraged foreigners to buy houses in order to get PR cards, now they ban it??

Both foreign housing sales and startup visa-style investments flood foreign capital into the country making everyone wealthier (either getting reinvested in more housing/jobs or spent in stores then taxed). So hopefully the new law won't do much to stop that.

It's probably not surprising that for all the things to get upset about, re: lack of housing supply, people always choose the foreign boogeyman route.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#53

Post by adverbly »

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #33
kennend3 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of being critical of the decisions of others, what do you suggest? Arm chair critics are a dime a dozen, what are your ideas on how to address the housing problems?

Zone every inch of currently settled land to allow 6 story mixed use buildings, by right. Don’t require anything to build besides engineering and safety checks - no chance for NIMBY input. Do this federally.

Not sure if I'd do it federally... maybe start with a few trial cities or areas where the idea has a lot of support... But I'd be all for trying something like this!

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#54

Post by antoniuschan99 »

kennend3 wrote: post #17
pestatije wrote: post #7

In Spain they'll give a residency permit to foreigners buying a home over 500k euros.

This is where Canada's new law gets really weird. We also have an "investment" class visa and almost everyone who has used this bought a house to meet the "minimum requirements" https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=653... So.. earlier they encouraged foreigners to buy houses in order to get PR cards, now they ban it??

Difference is they live here

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#56

Post by gruez »

kennend3 wrote: post #16
MarkusWandel wrote: post #3

So if you're the stereotypical rich foreigner who wants to invest in real estate here, what's the stop them from incorporating a company locally, and then having that own the house(s)? And that's just one workaround I can think of in the first 30 seconds. As with all well-intentioned simplistic schemes, this will hurt normal folks - immigrants who don't have their paperwork sorted out yet - and do absolutely nothing…

Well, there are fines for helping bypass the laws. "The Act has a $10,000 fine for any non-Canadian or anyone who knowingly assists a non-Canadian and is convicted of violating the Act. If a court finds that a non-Canadian has done this, they may order the sale of the house." I would assume opening a numbered corp to own the house would fall under this category? Most of the "super-rich" owned houses in Canada are alr…

Only a $10k fine? On a 1 million dollar house that works out to 1%, and your house doesn't even get seized, it only gets sold so you keep all the appreciation that occurred during that time. Considering that transaction fees (eg. for the agent) are probably more than 1%, this doesn't seem like a huge impediment.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#57

Post by housingisntbiz »

feet wrote: post #27
blitzar wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds a bit like zillow buying up 100k properties for 200k and then selling them on a few weeks later for 90k. I dont see that as much of a problem personally.

Well most of the companies doing this aren't completely harebrained and they actually capture rental markets, Zillow is an outlier

And this is exactly why the society should not subsidize rental living in any way and heavily make it a priority to help private people to buy and maintain ONE house for themselves. Just taxing rental predators out of the market would be a good start, there's no need to ban or outlaw anything. Then actions like giving huge tax exemptions for both the seller and buyer if it's between private persons and the buyer is going to live there would actually send the good signal for society.

However, after all tTis whole thing is just another reason to live in rural areas because rental predators are pretty much non-existent. Of course not everyone is so privileged, but those who are should seriously consider leaving cities for their own good.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#58

Post by JacobThreeThree »

tomohawk wrote: post #19
hestefisk wrote: post #11

Good symbolic act, but as the fine article states, it’s unlikely to have material effect on housing affordability for the average person until supply is increased.

Exactly. This is only attracting foreign interest due to th artificially constrained supply. If they were serious about the issue, they would increase supply.

Imagine if the government of Canada used just 1% of the 89% of crown land it owns out of all the land in Canada to give to people for housing.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#59

Post by asdff »

standardUser wrote: post #45
hestefisk wrote: post #11

Good symbolic act, but as the fine article states, it’s unlikely to have material effect on housing affordability for the average person until supply is increased.

Just because a policy does not solve a problem outright does not make it symbolic. The article discusses other measures that have already been implemented and points out that current housing prices are way off their peak from a year ago. If this policy further reduces demand even a little, that will have an impact on the trajectory of housing prices. That's not symbolism.

It is symbolism when everyone who is paid to think in this space considers it not to be a solution to the root of the problem, which is a lack of housing supply to keep up with job growth. You've banned foreign investors, great, there are still domestic investors who will fill the void in the market like gas in a small room. If you want there to not be investors, then housing shouldn't be such a great speculative asset to invest in, and it only is such an asset because local governments have opted to constrain supply and support investors rather than the workers they represent in their constituency.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#60

Post by jkaplowitz »

smnrchrds wrote: post #47
diceduckmonk wrote: post #34

There is still the immigration-by-visa route, no? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Immigrant_Investor_Pr...

No. Out of all the provinces, territories, and federal immigration schemes, only Quebec still has an immigration by investment program, and they have changed it to make it super difficult. It's no longer enough to just have or invest large amounts of money. One has to score enough points from a selection grid, which for example requires B2-ish level in French. The language component alone disqualifies most of the peo…

It goes beyond that:

https://www.quebec.ca/en/immigration/immigrate-business/inve...

Applications have been on hold for a while now, with no talk of re-opening it. There is no active immigrant investor program in Canada. There are several other immigration paths open to many skilled tech professionals, but the details of one's specific situation matter greatly and it is quite far from open immigration.

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