5 ms·

Perhaps you don't about the situation in Vancouver BC, but it is a very common place for wealthy Chinese nationals invest in a "safer" place outside their count

Perhaps you don't about the situation in Vancouver BC, but it is a very common place for wealthy Chinese nationals invest in a "safer" place outside their country. This is well known to the locals and those in the region.

afarrell 10y ago
I've heard this about many cities, including Boston, London, and New York. Do you have evidence that it is true in large numbers?
- Scoundreller 10y ago
  If you're trying to stash illegitimate money overseas, would you do it in your own name, or use a trustworthy local stand-in when available? Secondly, even if the money is legitimate, Canada does not tax capital gains on residences that are your primary residence. So if one wants to buy 5 homes, one could buy 1 yourself, and find stand-ins for the other 4. Or if one doesn't plan on living in any, 5 stand-ins.
- twistedpair 10y ago
  I've got a home in Boston. Zillow tells me it's appreciated 45% in several years. Since I (1) got a very low interest rate and (2) got a house in a hard to come by area and (3) would have to pay realtor fees to sell, why wouldn't I just rent it out when I decide to move somewhere else? If other people keep doing that in their lifecycle (move further out when deciding to have kids), you end up with many homes as investments where the home owners have no intention to combat high housing prices, as that only leads to higher rents and more profits.
  - afarrell 10y ago
    If you rent it out, the home isn't empty.
yummyfajitas 10y ago
People make similar claims about NYC, Mumbai, etc. The numbers just don't add up. There aren't that many rich Chinese people. In any case, suppose you are right. Why not keep building homes and selling them to those dirty chinamen? They want to throw money at Canada, why not take as much of it as possible? Oh right, exclusionary zoning. Which I'm sure is also somehow the fault of evil foreign scapegoats rather than nice white middle class Canadians. Maybe you guys should build a wall, and make the Chinese pay for it. Make Canada Great Again!
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
  > There aren't that many rich Chinese people. China has 1M+ millionaires. Assume 10% have enough disposable cash and motivation to go shopping for foreign real estate. It doesn't take much effort to look across the Pacific and home in on the politically easiest place to escape to. If 10% of those people choose Vancouver that's 10K units locked away from local residents.
  - yummyfajitas 10y ago
    So how come housing prices have been skyrocketing in most global cities as well? You seem to want to blame Vancouver's problem on foreign scapegoats, but Vancouver's problem is hardly unique. If all these evil Chinese folks are going primarily to Vancouver, what's the cause of SF, NYC, Boston, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and London's high housing prices? And why is Houston somehow immune to this global phenomenon?
    - YZF 10y ago
      The total housing inventory available in all these cities is just not high enough to satisfy the demand of investors. It seems there are certain cities that attract attention while others do not. Seems to be about where the marketing effort is and what the screening criteria is on the buyer side. This is nothing to do with evil. It's just business/common sense. If I had a lot of money and I was living in China where there's a large risk and I was looking to make a similar investment I'd probably go the same route. A lot of wealth was created in a short time and those wealthy people like any normal person are concerned about preservation of that capital and some sort of safety net.
twistedpair 10y ago
Which is why in Boston (5th most expensive US housing market), I get 50% discount on my property taxes, because I actually live in my house. If the house was an investment property, I'd pay 2x as much in taxes. [1] Boston Residential Exemption https://www.boston.gov/departments/assessing/how-file-residential-exemption https://www.boston.gov/departments/assessing/how-file-reside...

afarrell 10y ago

I've heard this about many cities, including Boston, London, and New York. Do you have evidence that it is true in large numbers?

Scoundreller 10y ago
If you're trying to stash illegitimate money overseas, would you do it in your own name, or use a trustworthy local stand-in when available? Secondly, even if the money is legitimate, Canada does not tax capital gains on residences that are your primary residence. So if one wants to buy 5 homes, one could buy 1 yourself, and find stand-ins for the other 4. Or if one doesn't plan on living in any, 5 stand-ins.
twistedpair 10y ago
I've got a home in Boston. Zillow tells me it's appreciated 45% in several years. Since I (1) got a very low interest rate and (2) got a house in a hard to come by area and (3) would have to pay realtor fees to sell, why wouldn't I just rent it out when I decide to move somewhere else? If other people keep doing that in their lifecycle (move further out when deciding to have kids), you end up with many homes as investments where the home owners have no intention to combat high housing prices, as that only leads to higher rents and more profits.
- afarrell 10y ago
  If you rent it out, the home isn't empty.

yummyfajitas 10y ago

People make similar claims about NYC, Mumbai, etc. The numbers just don't add up. There aren't that many rich Chinese people. In any case, suppose you are right. Why not keep building homes and selling them to those dirty chinamen? They want to throw money at Canada, why not take as much of it as possible? Oh right, exclusionary zoning. Which I'm sure is also somehow the fault of evil foreign scapegoats rather than nice white middle class Canadians. Maybe you guys should build a wall, and make the Chinese pay for it. Make Canada Great Again!

kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
> There aren't that many rich Chinese people. China has 1M+ millionaires. Assume 10% have enough disposable cash and motivation to go shopping for foreign real estate. It doesn't take much effort to look across the Pacific and home in on the politically easiest place to escape to. If 10% of those people choose Vancouver that's 10K units locked away from local residents.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  So how come housing prices have been skyrocketing in most global cities as well? You seem to want to blame Vancouver's problem on foreign scapegoats, but Vancouver's problem is hardly unique. If all these evil Chinese folks are going primarily to Vancouver, what's the cause of SF, NYC, Boston, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and London's high housing prices? And why is Houston somehow immune to this global phenomenon?
  - YZF 10y ago
    The total housing inventory available in all these cities is just not high enough to satisfy the demand of investors. It seems there are certain cities that attract attention while others do not. Seems to be about where the marketing effort is and what the screening criteria is on the buyer side. This is nothing to do with evil. It's just business/common sense. If I had a lot of money and I was living in China where there's a large risk and I was looking to make a similar investment I'd probably go the same route. A lot of wealth was created in a short time and those wealthy people like any normal person are concerned about preservation of that capital and some sort of safety net.

twistedpair 10y ago

Which is why in Boston (5th most expensive US housing market), I get 50% discount on my property taxes, because I actually live in my house. If the house was an investment property, I'd pay 2x as much in taxes. [1] Boston Residential Exemption https://www.boston.gov/departments/assessing/how-file-residential-exemption https://www.boston.gov/departments/assessing/how-file-reside...