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

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

#101

Post by Ghostt8117 »

theptip wrote: post #85
__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…

So this includes all landlords too? If I buy a second house, do it up, and rent it, I am an “investor”? While I can see how the delta in this metric is suggestive, it is not clear how it affects the available housing stock (rent+buy). What I think people actually care about is unoccupied investment properties, where someone buys and leaves it vacant. Apparently a lot of Chinese capital is parked in this way due to th…

Yes, you are an investor. You do not live in the home you purchased. You rent it to earn money, i.e., an investment.

This creates a huge problem. Rental properties have different regulations in different places. My brother-in-law was not given a lease renewal amnd was forced to move (within 30 days) while, where I live, that is illegal unless there is cause for eviction. It creates instability. Also, my rent increased $550/month in just two years. Who can afford that? This creates a tenuous housing issue. Thankfully, I was able to move and buy a very small condo so I have a set monthly payment and no longer need to worry about losing my home every year when my lease ends.

There is a huge difference in how I can plan for the future knowing I am not going to be, potentially, homeless every year.

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

#102

Post by pjc50 »

theptip wrote: post #85
__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…

So this includes all landlords too? If I buy a second house, do it up, and rent it, I am an “investor”? While I can see how the delta in this metric is suggestive, it is not clear how it affects the available housing stock (rent+buy). What I think people actually care about is unoccupied investment properties, where someone buys and leaves it vacant. Apparently a lot of Chinese capital is parked in this way due to th…

> If I buy a second house, do it up, and rent it, I am an “investor”?

Clearly yes.

Under-occupation is a separate issue; it's tempting to argue for an unoccupied homes tax, and politically attractive, but it has to be fairly small otherwise at the margin some houses in poor condition get demolished so the land can sit empty and accumulate value.

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

#103

Post by tptacek »

Ghostt8117 wrote: post #101
theptip wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this includes all landlords too? If I buy a second house, do it up, and rent it, I am an “investor”? While I can see how the delta in this metric is suggestive, it is not clear how it affects the available housing stock (rent+buy). What I think people actually care about is unoccupied investment properties, where someone buys and leaves it vacant. Apparently a lot of Chinese capital is parked in this way due to th…

Yes, you are an investor. You do not live in the home you purchased. You rent it to earn money, i.e., an investment. This creates a huge problem. Rental properties have different regulations in different places. My brother-in-law was not given a lease renewal amnd was forced to move (within 30 days) while, where I live, that is illegal unless there is cause for eviction. It creates instability. Also, my rent increase…

Housing would be (much) more difficult if nobody could rent and everyone had to own the homes they lived in, not easier.

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

#104

Post by VHRanger »

konschubert wrote: post #100
cvccvroomvroom wrote: post #53

This is creating an artificial Tulip bulb crisis where people could live instead of these rent-seeking vampires either letting them idle or renting them on Airbnb. Pass a law that homes must be occupied by the owner at least 10% of the time or property taxes go up 900%. Creating a class of land barons and serfs doesn't bode well for the future of humanity.

Just build more houses. North America is big. Stop fighting over scraps.

The fact that it's big doesn't matter. Building a million homes in North Dakota won't help anyone.

People need to live near cities, where jobs are. Outside our privileged white collar world where remote work is easy, others need to live in metro areas.

We need to build in and near cities, and improve the transit infrastructure.

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

#105

Post by pjc50 »

goethes_kind wrote: post #24
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.

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.

The UK had this system (council housing) and then basically dismantled it in the 80s. Then imposed some even more stupid rules. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41324305

Woking council managed to make some terrible investments and is now bankrupt: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-65920223

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

#106

Post by ako »

acover wrote: post #79
hotnfresh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

San Francisco tech salaries are not representative for the entire US tech industry. And on top of that, San Francisco salaries drive up housing prices, so i'm not sure if working in SF results in a higher discretionary income.

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

#107

Post by pjc50 »

jseliger wrote: post #49
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...

> realize that, when you restrict supply in the face of rising demand, prices rise.

Everyone knows this, so as long as there's a majority of homeowners who benefit from pushing values up, the problem is going to get worse.

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

#108

Post by paulddraper »

theptip wrote: post #85
__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…

So this includes all landlords too? If I buy a second house, do it up, and rent it, I am an “investor”? While I can see how the delta in this metric is suggestive, it is not clear how it affects the available housing stock (rent+buy). What I think people actually care about is unoccupied investment properties, where someone buys and leaves it vacant. Apparently a lot of Chinese capital is parked in this way due to th…

Yes of course. That is an investment property; the sole reason for ownership is generating a financial return.

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

#109

Post by FirmwareBurner »

rwmj wrote: post #90
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whereas in Germany it's my understanding that renters essentially can never be kicked out unless they do something egregious That's a double edge sword. Would you rent your place to people knowing they can stop paying and trash your place and you can't get rid of them? I'm not a landlord but this scenario would scare the hell out of me, which is probably why German landlords ask for so may documents(bordering on pr…

Nevetheless, 64% of people rent in Germany. (source: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:... ) House prices in Germany are 120% of the average for the whole EU and looking at the graph they seem to be slightly higher than the middle of the pack. They certainly don't seem to be outrageously unaffordable, unlike Ireland. (source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/digpub/housing/bloc-2a.h... )

Yet percentage wise more people own in Ireland than in Germany. Ireland saw the bigger growth rate in the last 10 years, but Germany was already quite expensive in that period.

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

#110

Post by pjc50 »

ChumpGPT wrote: 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…

> They also intentionally keep interest rates low

I believe Canada, like most central banks since the 90s, uses interest rates primarily for inflation control. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/taylor-ru...

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