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

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

bnnbloomberg.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 395 posts

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

#381

Post by ab_testing »

cheesecake_luvr wrote: post #54
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…

Overseas buyers just get permanent residency and citizenship and buy houses. A few years ago you just needed ~$NZ5m invested in the country and you get permanent residency. There is no way the prices are driven by domestic money. My factory supervisor brother has a house in Mangere Bridge, a blue-collar suburb, built for ~$100k 20 years ago is now well over $1m. It is batshit crazy. I hear of eye-watering prices in M…

May be it is not foreign buyers but instead the new Zealand government that had been printing money over the last year in an attempt to spur economic growth.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300223358/reserve-ba...

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

#382

Post by kennywinker »

exporectomy wrote: post #367
kennywinker wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they are in need of a place to live. One of the consequences of the current housing market in vancouver is that housing is unaffordable even as a renter. Those vacant homes, if they were available for rent would drive down rents for everyone and help house some of those unhoused people.

Sure, there will be some downward pressure on rents (not necessarily an actual decrease) but that's not an argument that empty homes are a major contributor to the high prices. It might not even be discernable above the noise. The argument of counting homeless people and empty homes is disingenuous because it seems superficially like that's the whole problem when it's surely not.

Idk, my empathy for middle income people struggling to buy a home is tiny in comparison with the empathy i feel towards people living in their cars or tents. I can’t see a way that we would get to full housing without radical changes to the way land is used and commodified, that would likely have upstream benefits that would help with home affordability

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

#383

Post by michael1999 »

flycaliguy wrote: post #319
michael1999 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ontario grows by more than 100k people per year. 10s of thousands of homes/year is losing ground, not even treading water.

Yeah, there is a pretty well circulated blog post [1] explaining this population growth. Ontario just wasn’t ready to see this many people show up. If anybody doesn’t make SV money and wants a good tip: Consider an early inheritance of your parent’s home if you can build them an addition. That’s what we are doing. Took out a small mortgage to buy out my sister and we are now raising a family with grandma nice and clo…

I used to blame the FLQ and the 1980 referendum. But Ontario has had 40 years to understand the new reality and Montreal _still_ has more subway than we do.

Good advice on co-housing - intergenerational sharing makes a ton of sense for so many reasons.

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

#384

Post by ttul »

xvilka wrote: post #201
digislave wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vancouver is famous all over the world as an attractive city (for example I live in Berlin, Germany, and many people I know would like to visit Vancouver). I've never been there, but I have heard it is next to the sea AND next to the mountains, and it lies in a first world country with a solid economy and good health care. Maybe the prices just reflect demand?

And likely it will not be affected much by the climate change.

Yeah, that’s not playing out well. Vancouver and the surrounding region experienced 800 deaths relating to June’s unprecedented one-in-a-thousand-years heat wave.

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

#385

Post by ttul »

rishav_sharan wrote: post #375
refurb wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more bonkers is the average house price in Canada (all of it) is over $700k now. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/photos/canada-real-estate-pri... It’s half that in the US.

I wonder if thats because most of the Canadian population is localized to their mega cities like Toronto, Vancuver etc while US has a much larger rural population.

Or could it perhaps relate to the Canadian government’s historical support of housing markets through the distortions of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which intervenes heavily in the mortgage wholesale market to provide liquidity whenever the economy stumbles…?

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

#386

Post by dillondoyle »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #269
yardstick wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes increasing supply will help, and my suggestions encourage increasing supply over turning existing stock into rentals, but if the new supply is all rentals that doesn’t help owner occupiers much. What needs to happen is owner occupiers are given a competitive edge when bidding for a property over a landlord. Hence more taxes and disincentives for buy to let purchasers. So for example a property selling for $1m, wh…

> What needs to happen is owner occupiers are given a competitive edge when bidding for a property over a landlord. Hence more taxes and disincentives for buy to let purchasers. A vibrant rental market is a great thing for many reasons (e.g. look up any study on labour mobility). Not sure why we should have tax advantages for home owners and tax disadvantages for the rental market. It's certainly not equitable to the…

I agree with you on this. Though to continue being a socratic a-hole on this thread, I might ask won't subsidizing renters always trickle up? The trickle down seems like a lie.

I'm personally supportive of housing as a human right and think it's worth it and actually stimulating all around, turns out removing stresses of life is good for the economy and people.

I think we did this backwards with stimi. Should have written checks to renters directly. The programs we do have for relief are woefully behind with hundreds of millions outstanding huge red tape.

Giving all renters point blank could maybe help start balancing the scales just a tiny bit.

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

#387

Post by dillondoyle »

pydry wrote: post #176
dillondoyle wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a reason increasing supply wouldn't be an easier solution?

cant build more land

and more vertical space ;0 I love density we need WAY more in the US if we want to tackle climate catastrophe.

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

#388

Post by jamal-kumar »

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 prefer tropical climes now.

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

#389

Post by [deleted] »

refurb wrote: post #235
forgingahead wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are severe and onerous asset forfeiture laws in many Western countries, not to mention the catch-all magic phrase of "eminent domain". If any government anywhere wants something from you, it will take it. You will not be able to outlast via the courts or whatever legal means you think are available, rather you'll likely burn all your available finances fighting it.

False comparison. Eminent domain requires compensation. In some of these countries your asset will be take from you and you have no remedies.

[deleted]

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

#390

Post by ZephyrBlu »

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…

Interest rates are 2-5% right now I think, minimum equity is 20% in most cases.
Post reply on HN