151–160 of 619 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, supply and demand. Excluding buyers reduces demand, and thus reduces prices.
But buyers will just become renters then, changing nothing for the prices.
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…
Why? Why did the government just watch this crisis develop? Why not... build some homes?
One good rule of thumb is that whenever people are blaming foreigners for their problems, they're wrong. Investment in housing and price increases are related. But it's the price increases that cause the investments, not the other way around.
So I live in a small mountain town where we've seen a massive influx of foreign investors driving up the price of housing because they're coming here and paying off locals to find them houses to buy for a private holiday house. There are middle men who do the finding then flip the property for 500% of what they buy the house off a little old lady for, on selling it to a rich person from overseas, who use the house fo…
> What annoys m the most about these parasites, is they don't pay tax, they buy a property, use all the local resources I pay for as a tax payer, contribute zero to the local area.
Why are they exempt from property taxes?
I really don't understand why governments around the globe just throw their hands in the air and pretend housing is an unsolvable problem for which they have no obligation to fix. It wasn't always like this - in 1922 in Australia we realised there was a shortage of 25,000 homes, so they just made it happen [1]. Why are we so impotent today? Do we just not care enough? Are the vested interests too powerful? [1] https:…
Supply is artificially controlled by voters who don't want density to increase, masked behind preservations, environmental concerns or just plain corruption
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/
Well-designed?! For who? From the actual law, at https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-25.2/page-1.html : >Offence >6 (1) Every non-Canadian that contravenes section 4 and every person or entity that counsels, induces, aids or abets or attempts to counsel, induce, aid or abet a non-Canadian to purchase, directly or indirectly, any residential property knowing that the non-Canadian is prohibited under this Act fr…
"If a non-Canadian is convicted of having contravened section 4, the superior court of the province in which the residential property to which the contravention relates is situated may, on application of the Minister, order the residential property to be sold in the prescribed manner and under prescribed conditions."
I really don't understand why governments around the globe just throw their hands in the air and pretend housing is an unsolvable problem for which they have no obligation to fix. It wasn't always like this - in 1922 in Australia we realised there was a shortage of 25,000 homes, so they just made it happen [1]. Why are we so impotent today? Do we just not care enough? Are the vested interests too powerful? [1] https:…
2008 was people finding the boundaries of the equation (“just how quickly can we make prices go up?”) and the foreseeable future is a slower continuation of that game: housing will keep getting more expensive but not better because current asset holders will pull all the levers they can (outright blocking supply, making it more expensive to build via things like below-market-rate requirements, etc) to keep the train rolling.
Honestly the inevitable fallout is probably one of the greatest risks to the current societal structure (probably tied with climate change).
Let’s hope Gen Z is up to tackle both.
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/
Well-designed?! For who? From the actual law, at https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-25.2/page-1.html : >Offence >6 (1) Every non-Canadian that contravenes section 4 and every person or entity that counsels, induces, aids or abets or attempts to counsel, induce, aid or abet a non-Canadian to purchase, directly or indirectly, any residential property knowing that the non-Canadian is prohibited under this Act fr…
I really don't understand why governments around the globe just throw their hands in the air and pretend housing is an unsolvable problem for which they have no obligation to fix. It wasn't always like this - in 1922 in Australia we realised there was a shortage of 25,000 homes, so they just made it happen [1]. Why are we so impotent today? Do we just not care enough? Are the vested interests too powerful? [1] https:…
Beginning with Japanese surpluses and no better place to reinvest, their corps. began picking up real estate as foreign investment.
Today high worth individuals with excess cash are driving worldwide demand. They are not going to live in most of that real estate.
Todays dynamics are different. It looks like Canada is tackling the problem in the right place.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I live in a small mountain town where we've seen a massive influx of foreign investors driving up the price of housing because they're coming here and paying off locals to find them houses to buy for a private holiday house. There are middle men who do the finding then flip the property for 500% of what they buy the house off a little old lady for, on selling it to a rich person from overseas, who use the house fo…
Why are only foreign rich people, and not local ones, interested in your mountain town? > What annoys m the most about these parasites, is they don't pay tax, they buy a property, use all the local resources I pay for as a tax payer, contribute zero to the local area. Why are they exempt from property taxes?
The property taxes are a flat rate for everyone who lives here. This is to be fair everyone I guess. Anyway, whatever the tax is, it’s easy for the people with money to pay it, it’s not a disincentive.
Property tax and income tax are different things. The people who own holiday houses don’t pay income tax here. Which is the bulk of the tax I pay.