Live data from Hacker News

Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

voanews.com

121–130 of 619 posts

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#121
I want to give some push-back regarding the often-heard phrase that governments should stop restricting supply. I'll be using the situation in the Netherlands to explore some complexities. These may not apply everywhere, but it serves to illustrate that the situation is far more complex than "stupid zoning".

First, the reason the Netherlands is in a similar situation as Canada (400K home prices, very tight supply) is not because the government has restricted (much) of anything. It's because in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, very few homes got built. All the way up to 2014. Builders build homes, not governments. Builders do not build homes without a buyer, and nobody buys in a crisis.

Hence, a 6 year deficit in supply in comparison to implied demand from population growth. Even in our tiny country this adds up to hundreds of thousands of homes not built. Not because of zoning. The deficit would be there with or without zoning. This is the true reason for the restricted supply.

Second, low interest rates are the multiplier as they expand lending capacity.

These two factors combined, not continuing to build in an economic downturn and low interest rates, is what I believe is responsible for the housing situation in many parts of the world. And when you think about this, it totally makes sense. The entire world faced the financial crisis and its impact, yet zoning is very local and diverse.

And there's of course secondary factors to add insult to injury. Homes are more expensive to build due to more expensive materials, more environmental regulation, and a shortage of workers that have increasing wages.

Don't get me wrong, zoning can be a factor in restricting supply, but there's far more going on.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#122

If you think this law will be easy to sidestep, please read this post first: https://old.reddit.com/r/canadahousing/comments/zz92li/prohi... It appears that the law is well-designed to avoid such abuses and loopholes. Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1494/

This will be easy to side-step as it has been done all along now. Linking a random redditors interpretation is absolutely meaningless.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#123
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? Foreigners can't buy therefore it will decrease the number of people trying to buy there

But it won't decrease the number of people competing to live in the units, which is what determines the value of the housing units.

A lot of these properties apparently are bought by wealthy foreigners purely speculatively, and sit vacant. If they were buying them to rent them out, I'd agree with you, but as it is, they end up reducing the housing stock that's available to be lived in while the number of people stays the same, so they do drive up price.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#125
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, Canada needs way more people for how much habitable land we have.

We don't have 'much habitable land'. Most of the 'land' is literally a rock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shield

Hmm, that does look habitable to me. Moreover, it looks quite nice compared to a lot of places people live in.

Mars, Moon, and some places on Earth defnitely are not habitable (unless very supported), but calling most of the Canada "unhabitable" is more than a stretch.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#127

If you think this law will be easy to sidestep, please read this post first: https://old.reddit.com/r/canadahousing/comments/zz92li/prohi... It appears that the law is well-designed to avoid such abuses and loopholes. Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1494/

Reddit is not exactly an authoritative source....

But HN is?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#128

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

Doesn’t Spain has excess residential housing? Visited recently and there seemed tons of empty housing and it’s quite cheap.

Is it cheap for Spaniards though?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#129

It’s too late and the problem isn’t even with the foreign buyers anyway. It never has been. Much like complaining about zoning, It’s a dumb misdirection play that people fall for every time.

How is zoning not a contributing factor to a shortage of housing?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#130

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?

[flagged]

Seems to be the fastest and easiest thing to do. But it goes against our current paradigm of looking for perpetual growth, the government will never reverse this policy
Post reply on HN