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Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

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Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#431

Post by imtringued »

BurningFrog wrote: post #301
slg wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is not the result of a hushed down societal decision. The refusal to allow housing construction the cause of the ever increasing prices. And what would you say is the cause for that? I would generally say it is people trying to protect their existing investments in housing.

Sure. The question is why they didn't do that until ~1970, which is when I think that era started. It sounds crazy today, but the vastly poorer US society of 1960 supplied pretty everyone with an indoor place to sleep and call home.

Actually, Germany ran a very successful public housing program after the 70s. It's pretty recent that the government basically sold their properties for pennies and now everything is getting more expensive because nobody is building anymore.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#432

Post by ipaddr »

tomatowurst wrote: post #176
VincentEvans wrote: post #7

I don’t know the specifics on Canadian real estate market and the specifics of the problems there, but based on my understanding of the problems facing your neighbors to the south - I feel like it’s almost an attempt to appease citizens by blaming the issue on “foreigners” (always a move that is popular with politicians) to redirect attention from the much more likely cause - massive investments made by hedge funds,…

You nailed it. You don't need to be in the Canadian real estate to realize that the most people coming to open houses are in fact local Canadians (also from other provinces) looking to move to the warmest part of the country or add another property or two to their portfolio. The landlords that run the real estate holdings companies are mostly White. They buy up the properties, apartments, condos when they are cheap w…

In Canada the landlords are of many colours. Many are Jewish.. would you hold that against them because they are white?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#433

Post by ipaddr »

johndfsgdgdfg wrote: post #161
VincentEvans wrote: post #7

I don’t know the specifics on Canadian real estate market and the specifics of the problems there, but based on my understanding of the problems facing your neighbors to the south - I feel like it’s almost an attempt to appease citizens by blaming the issue on “foreigners” (always a move that is popular with politicians) to redirect attention from the much more likely cause - massive investments made by hedge funds,…

I live in Canada. In Canada foreign investment is a massive problem. This is NOT the only problem. But it is a big part of the problem. And arguably housing crisis in Canada started with foreign investment. Now domestic players and instituitional investors are also involved in housing market. Together there are enough parties involved not to let housing prices go down.

Did you know only 3% of Toronto properties are foreign owned. Are you sure it's a real problem or media invented cause?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#434

Post by rank0 »

slg wrote: post #409
rank0 wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speculation isn’t great, but let’s not pretend this is some elaborate scheme orchestrated by all the homeowners. If it’s feasible and profitable to build new homes, then developers will do so. Everyone loves the simple solution of “build more houses”. Very few actually consider the execution of the master plan. What would it take for you to start building homes? It’s an enormous risk, requires tons of upfront capital…

I never said it was an "elaborate scheme orchestrated by all the homeowners." It is a natural result of people independently acting purely based on their personal incentives. Homeowners don't need to orchestrate and elaborate scheme, they just vote for the politicians who will prioritize increasing home values because that will help them financially. That politician will enact policies favorable to homeowners because…

> Homeowners don't need to orchestrate and elaborate scheme, they just vote for the politicians who will prioritize increasing home values because that will help them financially.

Or y'know...maybe homeowners don't want to have their neighborhood become overcrowded. Not everyone wants to live in a megacity with traffic, air pollution, constant bustle, and restricted personal liberty.

If financial gain is your only motive as a homeowner, you would actually WANT an increase in density. As you cram more people into a smaller space, the land underneath becomes more valuable. Increased density attracts amenities, restaurants, businesses, nightlife...etc, all of which raise the value of your property.

Homeowners care about things other than net worth.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#435

Post by unglaublich »

kache_ wrote: post #250
paulgb wrote: post #86

> Freeland will introduce legislation that allows Canadians under the age of 40 to save as much as C$40,000 ($31,900) for a home downpayment within a new tax-exempt vehicle, the person said. I'm not an economist but this seems pretty dumb? To the extent that it helps someone afford a home that they can save tax-free for it, the same is true of some of the people they're bidding against, driving up the price they ulti…

Ridiculous ageist policy. If you don't have a home and you're above 40, I'd argue you need the benefit even more.

What about no age discrimination at all?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#436

Post by dionidium »

davidw wrote: post #423
llbeansandrice wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not contending that supply isn't the real issue, just that there's no way you're going to be able to change the culture around individual home ownership, nimbyism, and zoning laws on any reasonable time-frame. A better current solution that likely has wide-spread support would be to limit the demand rather than throw more money into the demand side. Limiting large investors does not solve the problem, but it coul…

I'm not so sure it's not possible. There are large numbers of people getting priced out, and YIMBY groups are springing up all over. Here in Oregon, we passed HB2001, which re-legalizes up to 4-plexes in our cities. One of the city councilors where I live is a huge YIMBY. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2022/03/31/where-p... https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-yimbys-are-starting-to...

Yeah, you'd never get it done on a local level, but when people are forced to think about the issue holistically -- that is, when they can get outside of their immediate neighborhood and think about the fact that it's illegal to build enough housing on a state or even national level -- it looks like they can actually be swayed. These changes have to be made at the state/province level.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#437

Post by imtringued »

orangecat wrote: post #306
slg wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think that blind bidding is a bit of a scape-goat here: Almost everything mentioned in the various comments here is a scapegoat. These all might contribute a little to the escalating prices at the margins, but they are not the root cause. The root cause is that many capitalist societies have decided that purchasing a house is the most expensive and important investment most people will make in their lifetime. Ther…

Policies that forbid landowners from building housing are central planning and the opposite of capitalism. That aside, this is absolutely correct. It's constantly irritating to hear politicians praise "strong housing markets" when "strong" means "unaffordable if you're not already wealthy".

> Policies that forbid landowners from building housing are central planning and the opposite of capitalism.

You mean opposite of a free market. Property rights, aka the exclusion of other people, is actually an inherent part of capitalism. When you think about it, capitalism isn't actually about physical capital. It's actually about having the rights to be allowed to do things and restricting other people's rights while boosting your own rights is considered perfectly okay under the guise of private property.

When you think about it. We have built a system that tells you whether you get to work or not. This is completely independent of your ability to work or gain skills. It's like a brain cage that tells people they are powerless when they really aren't, they just aren't allowed to help themselves.

A lot of laws that set a minimum living standard basically make it illegal to live. If you are going to demand that everyone must meet that bar, then you must actually do something to let them achieve it. Instead, we just abandon people under the guise of personal responsibility.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#438

Post by tomatowurst »

ipaddr wrote: post #432
tomatowurst wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You nailed it. You don't need to be in the Canadian real estate to realize that the most people coming to open houses are in fact local Canadians (also from other provinces) looking to move to the warmest part of the country or add another property or two to their portfolio. The landlords that run the real estate holdings companies are mostly White. They buy up the properties, apartments, condos when they are cheap w…

In Canada the landlords are of many colours. Many are Jewish.. would you hold that against them because they are white?

Why are you mentioning Jewish community here?

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#439

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

kache_ wrote: post #250
paulgb wrote: post #86

> Freeland will introduce legislation that allows Canadians under the age of 40 to save as much as C$40,000 ($31,900) for a home downpayment within a new tax-exempt vehicle, the person said. I'm not an economist but this seems pretty dumb? To the extent that it helps someone afford a home that they can save tax-free for it, the same is true of some of the people they're bidding against, driving up the price they ulti…

Ridiculous ageist policy. If you don't have a home and you're above 40, I'd argue you need the benefit even more.

The home ownership rate is already >70% for people 40+.

This is just pandering to young people in Vancouver & Toronto.

Any tax savings will be passed on to owners in the form of higher prices.

The only thing you'll do is pay higher property taxes and insurance.

Re: Canada to ban foreigners from buying homes

#440

Post by bogota »

ipaddr wrote: post #276
bogota wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we could have seen this coming a mile away and built more houses and reduced the idiocy of city zoning. But yeah it’s the immigrants fault. Lets reduce immigration while we are facing a labor shortage.

The level of immigration is over 1%. Pretending people are just blaming foreigners misses the reality.

What do you mean by the level of immigration is over 1%? (Genuine question) and why does that matter?
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