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

theglobeandmail.com

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

#71

> 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.

I wrote "AFAICT" because that's my inference of a counterintuitive result of this methodology.

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

#72
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In 2022, Canada’s population grew by an unprecedented 1.1 million people, most of them permanent and temporary immigrants." From StatCan - The Canadian Census. "alt-right" my ass. https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/3861-40-million-strong-... Your CBC news link 404's.

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

#73
post #50

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?

I’ve read the article but don’t see details on there about Canada having restrictions on buying homes. Can you elaborate on what the restrictions are, outside of the price being too high for many people?

I imagine the person you’re replying to means restrictions more along the lines of limits on one home per person, or increased taxes on secondary or investment homes, or restrictions on who can buy an home, etc.

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

#74
post #29

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…

You need to break the positive feedback loop of historical house price appreciation -> more buyers as "investment" -> more house price appreciation -> more buyers...

High interest rates can do this once affordability becomes almost impossible that there are no more buyers. Prices fall, lower interest rates to stabilize, just keep adjusting interest rates to keep a level price. Then price and monthly payments will equalize to a reasonable premium on construction costs.

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

#75

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.

Or "break" and allow more people to WFH.

Government are some of the largest employers in most areas. You WFH as many employees as possible, and you will see a measurable decrease in traffic, improvement in air quality, and reduction in urban housing competition as WFH employees can move to lower COL areas.

But many of the housing benefits are only possible if it is permanent WFH. The problem during COVID was that employers weren't willing to commit and therefore employees has to maintain the ability to resume commuting.

It is strange to me that WFH isn't brought up relating to housing affordability.

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

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In 2022, Canada’s population grew by an unprecedented 1.1 million people, most of them permanent and temporary immigrants." From StatCan - The Canadian Census. "alt-right" my ass. https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/3861-40-million-strong-... Your CBC news link 404's.

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

#77
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I’ve read the article but don’t see details on there about Canada having restrictions on buying homes. Can you elaborate on what the restrictions are, outside of the price being too high for many people? I imagine the person you’re replying to means restrictions more along the lines of limits on one home per person, or increased taxes on secondary or investment homes, or restrictions on who can buy an home, etc.

Replying to myself because I see it now:

> Instead, Ottawa has targeted foreign real estate buyers with a ban on purchases until the end of 2024.

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

#78

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.

Governments should just build a bunch of socialized housing and rent it at a rent just high enough to offset the expenditure (i.e. way below private market value). That would put downward pressure on rents. That is what Vienna did and they are the only popular city in Europe without a serious housing crisis.

That would be so perverse if the government gave itself a monopoly on building housing. Just change zoning and make it legal for the private market to meet the need. Look at all the builders remedy projects in Santa Monica to see that this works.

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

#79
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? GDP per Capita is 71k cad vs a developer salary of 87k cad. Seems pretty average. https://www.glassdoor.ca/Salaries/toronto-software-developer...

GDP per capita isn’t the right figure to compare it to. You want median individual income, since median is what was under discussion.

In Ontario the median hourly wage is $27 cad. It's not some huge difference. Probably on the level of other university graduates.

For comparison US GDP per capita is 71k usd and San Francisco salaries are 172k usd. That's a big difference.

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

#80
post #3

Canada has very little private land ownership.The Federal Gov hoards land and creates a severe shortage of land for individuals to purchase. They need to open up the billions of acres of accessible land to 1st time buyers and then to existing property owners. Especially in the Province of Ontario. They also intentionally keep interest rates low so existing house/property owners can leverage their properties to buy mo…

Bingo. Canada is empty. It has the second lowest population density in the world. Most land is owned by the crown and is simply parcelled out to the friends and family's of the ruling class.

Adding to that, you have some of the worst zoning and development practices in the modern world. Most of the country is simple a piggy bank for money laundering in the form of empty condo towers.

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