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Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

theguardian.com

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Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#261

Post by iforgot22 »

bdangubic wrote: post #252
x0xrx wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not see how insane it is to at once 1) demand cheap housing and 2) demand it increases in price at breakneck pace?

I am not demanding cheap housing, I was only commenting on so you own a house, it makes basically no return, now what?

I'm saying that if they find a way to keep houses affordable to buy, they can't be viable investments. The US makes for a decent home investment market. You usually see a house price double every ~10 years once it's in a desirable area.

Btw, was your 40% increased house purchased 20 years ago? If so, that's effectively a loss, and I'm not even sure about the one that doubled. 5-10 years would be different.

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#262

Post by iforgot22 »

WalterBright wrote: post #242
iforgot22 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, the market should push owners to rent when prices stabilize. Eventually. In the meantime, it's possible that some foreign investors don't care too much about the opportunity cost. I think some kind of vacancy tax is the only good way to fix this if it's a real problem.

Vacant property is quite a drain on one's pocketbook. Try it some time. When I move and sell the old house, I underprice it to sell it as fast as possible. The other sellers do not seem to understand the time value of money, the maintenance cost, the taxes, the vandalism, and the squatter risk. Oh, and your insurance goes up if the house is vacant. And never mind having $800,000 or so tied up as a millstone around yo…

Generally yeah, but idk what it's like in Spain. If the gains are huge or the renters' protections are nuts, it could theoretically make sense to keep vacant.

If there isn't high vacancy in Spain, this is moot

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#263

Post by iforgot22 »

JambalayaJimbo wrote: post #223
iforgot22 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why this is better than people renting and investing their savings elsewhere, which is how it works with apartments anyway. So you own a house, it makes basically no return, now what?

Is the only reason you see for home ownership price appreciation? This mentality is what’s wrong with speculative real estate!

Yes. I don't know how you can buy something and hold it for decades without calling that "speculation."

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#264

Post by iforgot22 »

vivekd wrote: post #231
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, you're referring to one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in Canada [1]. (It also has a massive affordability crisis despite a ban on non-student foreigners buying expensive real estate.) [1] https://www.katrinaandtheteam.com/blog/vancouver-bc-economy/

Half the people in Vancouver are thinking about leaving and 25% want to leave within the next 5 years. People are leaving in droves largely because of costs. That seems to make the parents point - that the ecnomic benefits from immigration accrue to the few and the wealthy while making life harder for average people https://vancouversun.com/news/survey-finds-half-of-metro-van... I can sympathize with it because I liv…

Vancouver's population has been steadily increasing. Maybe it's catering to different people than before, but it's not fewer.

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#265

Post by ajb »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #222
ajb wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thee context here (and upthread) is about needing a nominee because you aren't in the country. IE if you were in country you'd control the asset directly.

> needing a nominee because you aren't in the country. IE if you were in country you'd control the asset directly Yes. A nominee is just a local contact of record. If a nominee can steal your shit, any rando with a notary can, too.

Are you positing a corrupt notary?

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#266

Post by iforgot22 »

Gvaskas wrote: post #203
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> over being called 'racist' by hateful strangers Straw man [1]. You're the only one in this thread levelling this charge. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[flagged]

You're asking what the motivation for foreign investment is? Money. You're the only one mentioning racism.

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#267

Post by iforgot22 »

x0xrx wrote: post #220
bdangubic wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

where exactly does a house make no return, especially in say last decade/15 years? I bought three houses in the last 20 years, one doubled, one up 70% and one 40% (still occupying it)

Do you not see how insane it is to at once 1) demand cheap housing and 2) demand it increases in price at breakneck pace?

Exactly, it's like complaining that gold is unfairly expensive. Those lucky Boomers got to purchase it at $40/oz in 1970 ($350/oz in 2025 money), now it's $2600/oz. I should be allowed to buy gold for $350/oz so I can profit like they did.

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#268

Post by CommanderData »

matt-p wrote: post #91
CommanderData wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is excellent, assets like property don't grow on trees and needs to be protected from foreign investors. Absolutely need something like this in the UK.

I think the ship has sailed, but regardless isn't it all meaningless? Surely they can setup a company to get around it, or will be ban all foreign ownership of shares too?

Assets cant be shipped overseas. They are here, in the UK. That's the beauty of it. Taxes can force them back to UK ownership.

The rich are buying the only asset the middle class will ever probably own, housing.

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#269

Post by iforgot22 »

ETH_start wrote: post #212
mkoubaa wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of those arguments that at face value seems quantitatively sound but doesn't survive first contact with reality

And your claim that it doesn't survive first contact with reality is based on you correlating high volumes of foreign investment with lack of housing affordability and assuming that the former is causing the latter, when the correlation is really due to a confounding factor.

Even if it's causing it, the city isn't vacant. There are people who can afford to live there. Only the people who can't afford it complain.

Re: Spain proposes 100% tax on homes bought by non-EU residents

#270

Post by [deleted] »

gruez wrote: post #170
d4704 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if migrants commit crimes at a lower rate than the local population, unless it's exactly zero, it'll still increase the crime rate. But that assumes you do not count the person who commit the crime as part of the population count. In this example, “crime per capita” goes down if they commit crime below the average crime rate of population before they joined that population.

>But that assumes you do not count the person who commit the crime as part of the population count. Sorry, meant to say "crime count", or more precisely, "native victimization count". Natavists by definition prioritize the native population over immigrants, so if some native got victimized by a migrant, I doubt a natavist would be convinced by "well actually, even though there was one extra crime committed by a migra…

[deleted]
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