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Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#371

Post by philliphaydon »

ethbr0 wrote: post #361
drunkenmagician wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived in both NZ and Singapore I can second these comments. Although the 'a business cannot rent out a home' bit would probably not work in practice. There's definitely an ongoing need for commercial landlords, although govt's could do more to ensure this model is sustainable and fair for both landlord and renter, usually it swings in favour of one or the other.

Commercial landlords aren't the problem, per se. Ownership concentrated in a few massive entities is. Outlawing owning >x% of a market's housing supply (for some low x) doesn't sound like the worst idea. What we'd want is there to be (a) enough rental housing stock, (b) enough rental owning companies of comparable size to create a healthy market on rental prices, & (c) a sane balance between the number of rental and…

I concur.

Finding a balance is very difficult, any way you tip the scale its difficult to stop it from continuing to tip causing new problems :(

It's easy to point out problems, difficult to come up with solutions.

One thing I believe is that mortgage payments, and accessible mortgages should always be lower than the rental price so those who want to own rather than rent, it makes it a easier/better option. (does that make sense?)

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#372

Post by MonkeyMalarky »

benbojangles wrote: post #348

A little bit off topic and also conspiratorial but could buying up property be a type of social weapon? I mean why drop bombs on a nation when you can make the native population homeless through pricing them out of the market?

India, who once suffered a devastating famine under their colonial master's hands, does not allow foreigners to purchase farmland.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#373

Post by chii »

philliphaydon wrote: post #324
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reasons we don’t have enough homes is because governments have made it illegal to build enough new homes to meet demand. You are essentially say that the presence of car collectors leads to car shortages.

> The reasons we don’t have enough homes is because governments have made it illegal to build enough new homes to meet demand. > You are essentially say that the presence of car collectors leads to car shortages. The price of a old car, a new car, a cheap car, and an expensive luxuary car, all vary greatly. Cars are more or less open for purchase by everyone. Houses a fixed in a location, you cannot pick it up and mo…

> How to you do that when you cannot get a loan to buy the same house? How is it fair?

if they cannot get a loan to buy a yacht, or a lambo, how come you don't make the same argument?

Owning a house is not some natural right. Being able to afford shelter is, and renting accomplishes that. If rent is skyrocketing, then there's a problem and the gov't needs to address it. But rents have not grown in relation to the cost of the house - in fact, rent is cheaper in most cases.

> You do not need governments to build houses to solve the problem.

no, but not because of the reason you said. It's because the gov't (or more correctly, the local councils) is preventing new builds via zoning, as well as cultural preferences for standalone house, rather than dense living in high rises.

> "Oh, it's ONLY 300k? Heres cash"

i dont know if you've been misinformed, but foreign buyers haven't been a problem in australia (and NZ and canada) for a while - ever since 2018-2019. Most of the demand for real estate are from locals. Using foreigners is a scapegoat.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#375

Post by rcarr »

mdasen wrote: post #209
fleddr wrote: post #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…

The problem is that restricting purchasing is a tiny stop-gap. It might be a useful stop-gap depending on the circumstances, but it won't actually solve the problem. It's like having a hole in your boat, tossing two bucket-fulls of water out, and then calling it a day. The boat is better off, but the water is still coming in and eventually the problem will be back and will keep getting worse. So Canada has shed a sma…

Maybe new towns are part of the solution. Incentivise (or mandate) companies to bring manufacturing onshore and build the new factories in the middle of nowhere like the gigafactory and then build the infrastructure around it like the old days.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#376

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

josho wrote: post #276
philliphaydon wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because today houses are not for living in. They are investments. There's multiple issues that need solving now. 1) Being able to purchase a house without ever setting foot in the country. NZ decided to stop foreigners buying houses. There were websites you can go in and people from China would buy houses without ever setting foot in NZ... The buying power of alot of people from China and India is huge. This drives u…

I don’t necessarily see a problem with point 2. Renting a house often creates supply. The owner will create a basement suite or a nanny suite over the garage. If housing shortage was solved then that also kills the profit motive of renting out all but the most ideal houses for renting. The root cause in Canada is the neoliberal policy that started in the 90s that ended government building low income housing. They lef…

Did the free market set the prevailing risk free interest rate in CAN ?

Did the free market supply the homeowner and title insurance ?

Did the free market determine the rules for zoning that plague most large metro areas and adjoining suburbs?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#377

Post by bhouston »

BurningFrog wrote: post #75

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.

It isn’t all foreigners that is for sure.

But a lot of it has been. Vancouver has for many decades massive influx of Chinese buyers:

https://www.fortunebuilders.com/one-third-of-vancouvers-real...

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#378

Post by xvilka »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #292
xvilka wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just do it like any big Asian city: 1) build high-rises 2) build more metro lines Look at Tokio or Shanghai, as an example.

Tokyo doesn't have many high rises. Shanghai has lots of high rises; well, they are mostly 30 story apartment buildings that can be reliably built with concrete and unskilled labor. Yet, there is a lot of speculation market in the China so prices are still high even if supply expands (and many apartments are empty because they are just being used as speculative investments). One of the reason I didn't look at Shangha…

> Tokyo doesn't have many high rises.

Right, but only because of the seismic activity, from what I know. In most other places that wouldn't be an issue.

Nevertheless, Tokio is still relatively dense with tightly packed mid-rises, and actively building.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#379

Post by glitchc »

firecall wrote: post #312
plantain wrote: post #140

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:…

One of the problems we have today in Australia is a lack of trades! A few large Home Building Companies have recently collapsed. We also have a shortage of qualified tradespeople that are capable of contributing to the building of homes. I'd link sources, but a quick Google will tell you all you need to know! Material costs have risen sharply too!

Well, you know, there's nothing preventing you from switching from SWE into the trades if you consider it to be more lucrative. Why not jump at the opportunity while it's still hot?

Snarky notwithstanding, my point simply is that if the trades are not a desired occupation, that must be for a reason, likely a socioeconomic one. You cannot force people to enter an undesired occupation.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#380

Post by [deleted] »

screye wrote: post #212

I don't blame Canada. The country is running out of space really fast and they lack the technology to build more than 1 floor of house. Unlike massive countries like South Korea, they can't fit 50 million people. Can you imagine being forced to live in slum like conditions without a half-acre yard or at least 3 parking spots? We are a developed country, do you expect us to park on the streets like the 3rd world ? If…

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