Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

theglobeandmail.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 207 posts

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#41

Post by paulryanrogers »

calderwoodra wrote: post #27
matt3210 wrote: post #16

Not sure about Canada, but I make way above the median in tech in California and I have zero interest in buying a home. Having a home would be a huge hassle when I look for new work every 3 or 4 years. The math shows a home in almost any area in the USA is only a financial benefit after 8 or more years of staying in that home (compared to an apartment), when taking closing costs, maintenance, large upfront interest,…

I'm guessing you don't have children? I don't either, but I suspect that's folks main motivation for buying a home.

It's also a hedge against rent, though in that case one must do a lot of maintenance personally.

As to kids, those of us who grew up in suburbia have a fondness for a yard, garden, and air gap between living spaces. Now if only the former owner had not put so many landscaping pebbles and bushes...

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#42

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

gruez wrote: post #29
slothtrop wrote: post #13

Still not clear whether they are mostly institutional or solo "mom and pop" second/multi-home buyers. Either way this was the inevitability of borrowing at virtually 0 interest for so long, with a high immigration rate guaranteeing perpetually increasing demand. It's like free money. They've recently increased the interest rates but it's woefully insufficient. The rate of housing starts needs to increase (this is fai…

>They've recently increased the interest rates but it's woefully insufficient. What should it be? I'm sure you can push house prices down even more if you bump interest rates to 10% or whatever, but raising interest rates also increases monthly payments that buyers have to make, which ends up making houses less affordable. At the end of the day I care less about the sticker price of the house than the overall cost I…

Raising interest rates increase rent prices. Here in Vancouver the rent prices increased by 50% in like 3 years and it seems the reason is mostly to cover mortgage + have income. Really bad.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#43

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

likenesstheft wrote: post #37
jilX wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was looking separately and I think I found where the claim comes from: > The federal government's latest immigration levels plan, released last fall, would see Canada welcome 500,000 immigrants annually by 2025. In contrast, the immigration target for 2015 was under 300,000. Then: > In 2022, Canada's population grew by more than one million people, a number that included 607,782 non-permanent residents and 437,180…

That’s a lot of people. Where are all those people going to be housed? Where will the resources for their education and gainful employment come from? Is the Canadian job market exploding with a huge amount of well paying jobs such that Canada’s children have multiple options to pick from, or will everyone be competing for scraps?

So I don’t know how much you know about economics but it’s well known that gaining an increased population of working aged adults is actually pretty good for the economy, because they generate demand (create jobs) and then also take up jobs (generate supply). Immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs and statistically consume less social services.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#44

Post by carlosjobim »

__derek__ wrote: post #2

> The central bank defines an investor as a buyer who took out a mortgage to buy the property while maintaining a mortgage on another home. In the US, a lot has been made about large investment companies buying up houses, but this is something different entirely: > This category represents homebuyers with multiple mortgaged properties. This means investors are homebuyers who either: > * purchase an investment propert…

> it would even exclude someone with a paid-off house who bought a new investment property with a mortgage.

That is called an investor, since they purchased an investment.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#45

Post by kiba »

ozmodiar wrote: post #33
Schiendelman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The large companies just don’t account for very many homes. Once you control out for homes under construction, that just isn’t the issue. The issue is that we dramatically restrict how much housing anyone can build, specifically, upward.

The city I live in isn't restricting it. Condos are going up as fast as they can be built and the parks are still filling up with tent cities and rents are still doubling. Something just doesn't add up. I'm in Canada (don't want to give exact city, sorry).

Well, without specific numbers and statistics, it's hard to know if demand for housing are being met.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#46

Post by rchaud »

matt3210 wrote: post #16

Not sure about Canada, but I make way above the median in tech in California and I have zero interest in buying a home. Having a home would be a huge hassle when I look for new work every 3 or 4 years. The math shows a home in almost any area in the USA is only a financial benefit after 8 or more years of staying in that home (compared to an apartment), when taking closing costs, maintenance, large upfront interest,…

> Having a home would be a huge hassle when I look for new work every 3 or 4 years.

Most people want to put down roots somewhere; that might be you as well one day. And those people will not want to rent forever, because that puts them at the risk of reno-viction. Imagine having to move every few years, not for a better job, but because your landlord jacked up the rent massively and there aren't any laws preventing them from doing that.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#47

Post by belltaco »

carlosjobim wrote: post #44
__derek__ wrote: post #2

> The central bank defines an investor as a buyer who took out a mortgage to buy the property while maintaining a mortgage on another home. In the US, a lot has been made about large investment companies buying up houses, but this is something different entirely: > This category represents homebuyers with multiple mortgaged properties. This means investors are homebuyers who either: > * purchase an investment propert…

> it would even exclude someone with a paid-off house who bought a new investment property with a mortgage. That is called an investor, since they purchased an investment.

Right, they're saying those wouldn't be counted under the article's methodology.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#48

Post by rwmj »

matt3210 wrote: post #16

Not sure about Canada, but I make way above the median in tech in California and I have zero interest in buying a home. Having a home would be a huge hassle when I look for new work every 3 or 4 years. The math shows a home in almost any area in the USA is only a financial benefit after 8 or more years of staying in that home (compared to an apartment), when taking closing costs, maintenance, large upfront interest,…

Local laws vary a lot in how much protection they give to renters. Here in the UK I absolutely wouldn't want to be renting, you have very little security and can be (legally) kicked out with a couple of months' notice in most cases. Whereas in Germany it's my understanding that renters essentially can never be kicked out unless they do something egregious, and it's usual for people to choose to rent for life.

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#49

Post by jseliger »

newbie578 wrote: post #4

I do wonder what country will be the first one to ‘break’ and implement restrictions on buying homes. The current situation is not sustainable, and soon something will need to give.

I do wonder what country, besides Japan, will be the first one to 'break' and realize that, when you restrict supply in the face of rising demand, prices rise. The current situation is sustainable for as long as voters keep voting in NIMBY politicians. Something may give, but something may not.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-will-do-anything-to-en...

Re: Investors account for 30 per cent of home buying in Canada, data show

#50

Post by rchaud »

newbie578 wrote: post #4

I do wonder what country will be the first one to ‘break’ and implement restrictions on buying homes. The current situation is not sustainable, and soon something will need to give.

If you read the article, there are already restrictions on purchases. This 30% pertains to people that have taken out a mortgage on a property, when they already have an existing property mortgage. What case is there for restricting that?
Post reply on HN