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Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#401

Post by mads_ravn »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #363
philliphaydon wrote: post #324

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 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…

Your’e confused about this specific conversation and the US housing market in general. I read your post several times, and can’t make heads or tails of what you’re trying to say. Sorry. I will make one point: in the US, it’s never been the government’s job to build homes. That’s always been left primarily to the private sector. Right now however, governments won’t allow the private sector to build enough homes. They’…

> I will make one point: in the US, it’s never been the government’s job to build homes.

That might be technically correct on the build part, but the US government used to subsidize home ownership through loans as described in [1], e.g.

> GI Bill benefits that guarantied home loans helped many Americans buy houses and move into the suburbs.

[1] https://www.exploros.com/summary/The-Growth-of-Suburbia

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#402

Post by cycomanic »

QIYGT wrote: post #332
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…

> Because today houses are not for living in. They are investments. The only reason homes can be considered investments is that governments limit supply so much that prices are forced to increase.

If it is just a matter of supply and demand, how come that increase in house prices have outpaced population growth by huge margins in many places? I mean look at places like, e.g. Germany which has a pretty stable population (it would be contracting if it wasn't for immigration), but house prices increased significantly over the last 10 years, pretty much throughout most of the country.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#403

Post by LarryMullins »

areyousure wrote: post #386
LarryMullins wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I thought he was being sincere. Canada's population is mostly crowded into a small part of Canada, something like 2/3rds of the country live south of the 49th Parallel (south of long straight part of the US/Canada border), and in this region the population density is quite high. They do have a ton of land in all the rest of Canada, but for reasons of access to services, climate, etc.. most people in Canada are cr…

In case anyone is curious, southern Ontario is quite south of the 49th parallel and includes Canada's biggest city. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ontario The population of southern Ontario is ~13.5 million people (roughly a third of Canada). North Korea has a similar area (slightly larger), but approximately twice the population. South Korea also has a similar area (slightly smaller), but approximately twi…

Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City are all in this region. It may not be as dense as Korea, but the Korean peninsula is one of the densest parts of the world so this isn't saying much. If you visit this part of Canada, it feels much like the urban/suburban sprawl of the American North-East across the border.

My point is, that looking at the population density for the entirety of Canada is misleading because most Canadians don't live in Yukon Territory. The population density of the part of Canada people actually live in is much closer to what you'd expect from a typical developed country.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#404

Post by yumraj »

I'm genuinely curious, as to why a country, any country, should not limit home purchase to residents (note I'm saying residents and not citizens).

What benefit does it provide to a country or its residents if home purchase is opened to foreign residents?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#405

Post by stoppingin »

dionidium wrote: post #299
stoppingin wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea is pure fantasy. This condition of classifying people as NIMBYs if they disagree with you on this topic is incredibly toxic. There are a plethora of totally valid reasons why people would be opposed to endless urban sprawl, consolidation, and population growth.

> There are a plethora of totally valid reasons why people would be opposed to endless urban sprawl, consolidation, and population growth. There really aren't, though, in the sense that the costs (both societal and individual) drastically outweigh the benefits. Of course prohibitions on new construction are narrowly beneficial to specific individuals. Who wants some guys starting up new construction at 7AM next door?…

Everything in your post is just your own personal opinion.

> The problem is that these individual preferences come with enormous costs, both economic and with respect to individual freedom...

What if I don't agree with increasing the population? If I don't want to increase the number of people in the city I'm living in, then why on earth would I want urban consolidation? Does anyone actually enjoy living in a tiny apartment, as opposed to being able to afford a house with a yard? The need for endless population increase is not just some foregone conclusion. Not everyone here is an SWE living in SF, with SF problems, and SF opinions.

> In short, yes, people do have rational, coherent reasons to oppose growth, but, no, those complaints are not in the end valid.

I don't agree with your opinion. Should I just classify all of it as 'invalid'?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#406

Post by rcme »

yumraj wrote: post #404

I'm genuinely curious, as to why a country, any country, should not limit home purchase to residents (note I'm saying residents and not citizens). What benefit does it provide to a country or its residents if home purchase is opened to foreign residents?

It increases the demand for real estate, which increases the price of real estate. This benefits those who own real estate. Many residents own real estate, so they do benefit from the policy.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#407

Post by endgame »

dboreham wrote: post #344
dgoldstein0 wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Houses tend to increase in value, Cars tend to decline in value. this is an observation that may be mostly supported by data right now, but also is not super meaningful. WHY do houses appreciate? why do cars depreciate? The answer is supply and demand: supply of housing is far more regulated than supply of cars - height limits and zoning are frequent reasons, but any sort of building approval process with unnecessa…

Houses are basically NFTs

In what way? The public registry of who owns what? The long transaction times? The high transaction fees? The rampant speculation beyond any sensible value? The "buy now or be forever poor" messaging?

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#408

Post by db48x »

orwin wrote: post #365
db48x wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But D is not true. If a property costs one million today, but could sell for two million in a few years, then simply buying it and holding it will earn you a reasonable rate of return even if you never rent it out. In fact renting it out is risky simply because it will make the property harder to sell when the time comes. And with a small but significant population of potential buyers excluded, the property prices wi…

But D is true though. Housing price is mostly based on the price-to-rent ratio when outside a bubble, and the average investors know it way better than the average Canadian [0] [0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-to-rent-ratio.asp

Only if the buyer intends to rent it out.

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#409

Post by neighbor1 »

voisin wrote: post #86
verdenti wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I 100% concur. Canada would benefit by having a population 2-3x current. I am always amazed how in the US there are so many cities with vibrant cultures in the 50-80k range whereas in Canada you can drive vast distances and only find tiny settlements of a few thousand people and no services or culture to speak of.

> Canada would benefit by having a population 2-3x current

What a coincidence, this is exactly what the Century Initiative wants. Toronto would go from 8.8 to 33.5 million people. Vancouver from 3.3 to 11.9 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Initiative

Re: Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

#410

Post by andreareina »

philliphaydon wrote: post #295
andreareina wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Singapore HDB flats are still being used for investment and my generation (30s) and younger are still feeling the pinch. IMO there’s (at least) one part missing to the BTO sauce: you got a government subsidy, you don’t get to sell on the open market. I don’t know what the alternative is, whether it’s selling back to the government (adjusted for inflation and depreciation somehow) or what, but currently there’s a s…

Yeah it's not a bullet proof system but I think it still works relatively well. If I understand correctly if you own a HDB, you can buy a Condo? But if you have a Condo you cannot buy an HDB? And then in some scenarios you must pick which one you will keep. Since I'm not Singaporean I'm not well versed in the ins and outs of the system but I do think on the surface its much better than most other countries.

I think that’s right. I’m in the same boat but it’s hard to talk to anyone my age and not get an earful about the housing situation haha. Definitely better than other places I’ve seen, agreed.
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