you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

Canada actually passed a law prohibiting foreign buyers of real estate. It hasn't had much of an effect on housing costs, because when you're looking at millions and millions of people, a handful of billionaires really doesn't change the underlying problem very much.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    It hasn't had much of an effect on housing costs because it's too late. Claw back all the housing they bought up, sell it off to citizens at reasonable prices, and then you'll see an effect on housing costs.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Foreign owners only account for a small share of the Canadian real estate market. According to Statistics Canada, a government website, non-residents owned 2.2 percent of residential properties in Ontario and 3.1 percent in British Columbia in 2020. The percentages were 2.7 and 4.2 in the Toronto and Vancouver metropolitan areas, respectively.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/6/why-is-canada-banning-foreign-homebuyers

    I'm not personally convinced that freeing up maybe 3% of the housing stock (large amounts of which are probably rented) would have a significant effect on the housing market. Maybe, just maybe, there's been a chronic lack of new supply for decades?

    Nah, I'm sure it's just those dastardly Chinese.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments