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Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

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Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#321

Post by sjg007 »

teruakohatu wrote: post #17

New Zealand has a similar housing problem. House prices are skyrocketing and pricing out young people. A 25-30% rise in the past year has meant few people are saving fast enough to get a deposit. But two or three years ago the govt. banned overseas buyers. There is no reason to suggest the ban is not effective. It even bans non-permanent residents, so plenty of legitimate residents (work visas) can't purchase propert…

>Old houses are sold at prices relative to new houses. If new houses cost more and more, old houses also increase in value, especially since they are on the best land (not in new far away outer suburbs).

This is basically the reason... it's location right? Older houses may have bigger lots and better offsets etc... Yes you can get newer going further out but you can also remodel.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#322

Post by coldacid »

monkeynotes wrote: post #254
RandomWorker wrote: post #14

Home owners will be happy to hear this. Not yet home owners like me are screwed because rents to damn high and I can’t afford to save up for a down payment. Sorry bud.

It's not good for home owners at all. As property prices go up my property taxes also go up, but my salary does not. It's not like I can sell up and make a pile of cash, I'd have nowhere to live or have to buy again in the same market. And worse, if you buy into this hot market and then inflation crushes it with rising interest rates then I risk being underwater and looking at refinancing with numbers that I can bare…

At least it doesn't put us underwater on our mortgages, though. But yeah, I'm definitely not looking forward for my next property assessment. I expect I'll end up paying at least another 25% on top of my current property taxes, simply because every house around here now goes into bidding wars.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#323

Post by coldacid »

ant6n wrote: post #82
jamal-kumar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like not living in Canada anymore. It's depressing to think about how it got, but I've just stepped aside for a long while now and whenever I visit I'm just kind of shocked at how it doesn't get any better and instead just increasingly worse.

What place could possibly be better?

I've heard a lot of good things about Idaho.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#324

Post by cannabis_sam »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #300

You can always build more houses, start new cities, its not a real problem. But a million dollars brought in, goes directly into the economy from a foreign investor, makes a country rich. Trading something that is low skill to make, into money that can be spent on all kinds of infrastructure and technology. So my only take on this is that how that invest money is spent by that country if its a net positive or negativ…

> You can always build more houses, start new cities, its not a real problem.

Of course, but that would devalue the existing housing stock, which for the vast majority of politicians would mean a loss on their real estate investments.

Why would they give a shit about young and future people being able to afford a place to live, when they can make a mint by denying these people housing?

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#325

Post by coldacid »

CosmicShadow wrote: post #291

Living in Kitchener-Waterloo (an hour from Toronto), our housing rates have gone through the roof with rich Torontonians buying our stuff for 100-300k over, but who the fuck is buying their extremely overpriced stuff?? That's what we always wonder. Who can afford to live in Toronto or buy anything there? Their jobs don't pay that much more. There is no "more expensive market" or "secret Ultra-Toronto" that can move d…

It's almost entirely foreign buyers, as investments or for money laundering.

If Trudeau would rub some brain cells together, we'd get changes to the law that would limit foreign real estate ownership, and close loopholes allowing the banks or other Canadian investment firms to hold real estate on behalf of foreign owners.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#326

Post by zonkd1234 »

voisin wrote: post #181
teruakohatu wrote: post #17

New Zealand has a similar housing problem. House prices are skyrocketing and pricing out young people. A 25-30% rise in the past year has meant few people are saving fast enough to get a deposit. But two or three years ago the govt. banned overseas buyers. There is no reason to suggest the ban is not effective. It even bans non-permanent residents, so plenty of legitimate residents (work visas) can't purchase propert…

What are interest rates on mortgages, and what percent equity are homebuyers expected to have in order to qualify? I believe foreign buyers is also a scapegoat in Canada. At first I believed it when home prices were only growing at obscene rates in the major cities but now it has spread to every tiny community in the country, literally from Newfoundland to the Yukon. This is a direct consequence of interest rates bei…

I agree. This is likely a result of central bank policies pushing rates down for so long. I bought recently because rates are so extremely low and the govt has committed to keeping them low for a long time. Rates went up very slowly after the Great Recession and this time will probably be the same. Add to that a growing population (here in Canada) and housing prices will probably keep going up a lot.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#327

Post by kodah »

I'd like to point out how nutty it is that this is happening all over the world now. I first experienced this in 2017 in Dallas, TX - now it's everywhere.

One thing I worked very consciously with my financial planner about was this sentiment that:

- My job does not facilitate staying in a place long enough to make owning a home a worthwhile investment

- I will probably never own a home because there are enough people that have a lot more liquidity than I do

We have now setup an investment strategy that has become more stable and effective than owning a home. Point being, this is a FP's bread and butter - engage them!

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#328

Post by killjoywashere »

nitrogen wrote: post #88
killjoywashere wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the downvotes? This is old, well reported news: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/21/bitcoin-btc-price-drops-on-c... .

It's unrelated to the article, and is likely to spur even less related comments.

It is related to the article. Where do you think these mystery billions are coming from?

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#329

Post by wheelinsupial »

rtpg wrote: post #214
Gatsky wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add that in Australia the housing market is also going nuts and presumably foreign buyers are suppressed or absent due to Covid. It is really quite bad, and nobody knows what to do about it. It is lose-lose now because there are the people who can't buy a house, and then there are those who sacrificed everything to buy a house. You can't help one group without really hurting the other. It will really hit home…

Why don’t you think increasing supply like the Japanese solution would work?

In BC, I don’t think increasing supply helps to increase ownership. I’ve seen some data from Stats Canada from the housing statistics program that shows the percent of owner occupied apartments is decreasing over time. From 60-70% to somewhere in the 40% range.

I haven’t been able to find reliable numbers on the number of new condos coming in, but looking around the city it’s hard to believe that we would not be increasing supply. For example, I live in a condo / townhouse development that has 450 units; before this was built, there were 4 single family homes on the same land.

Stats Canada is starting to put out information on multiple house owners. The majority of the multiple unit owners own within the same city as their primary residence. People who see the headlines speculate it’s cottage owners, but it’s really not the case.

From anecdotes, the other driver of non-owner occupied apartments are people who live at home but are able to buy an apartment to rent out. They do this because housing keeps going up here and they want to build equity to be able to afford a house once they are married and move out of the family home.

Re: Billions in 'unknown' funds flowing into Canada's housing market [video]

#330

Post by __turbobrew__ »

brutus1213 wrote: post #251

I think the housing situation in major Canadian cities is so bad, it is going to have clear detrimental outcomes to society. Starter homes in nice (not posh, subway access, good walk score) neighborhoods in Toronto are going for 2-2.5 million. The math on these are bad even if you made a profit on the condo you bought previously (which many people may not have made). The govt has made a series of very half hearted mo…

Foreign buyers are a scapegoat in Canada. The real issue is that individuals/corporations with large capital bases are buying out many real estate properties, sitting on the properties for a few years for the value to appreciate, and then buying more properties with the additional capital gained by the real estate market going up. Real estate value is going up faster than mortgage rates which means you can expand you property holdings in perpetuity. It is basically a big game of monopoly which is unfolding in slow motion.

I firmly believe that housing is a social good first, and an investment vehicle second and so we should be taxing any property which is not the primary residence of the owner to equalize the playing field between those with a large capital base and middle class families who just want a stable place to live.

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