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I don't know about Canadian laws, but in the United States we let foreigners buy real estate with a phone call, or email. So basically we let foreigners buy ou

I don't know about Canadian laws, but in the United States we let foreigners buy real estate with a phone call, or email. So basically we let foreigners buy our land. They can't live in the house/building, but they control the people whom do. We make it difficult for hard working Americans to buy a home, but let foreigners scoop it up with funny money? This has bothered me for years. Especially when it's not easy for Americans to buy foreign land. (Supposedly the government asks about the origin of the wealth before the sale now, but in my county (Marin County) it looks fishy. I have neighbors who don't speak a lick of english, but are living in mansions. My gripe isn't cultural. I just have doubts on the origin of the cash they buy houses/land/buildings with.)

hippich 5y ago
Isn't there like 30% immediate tax that is required to be withheld by the agent and then later buyer is responsible to file a return to attempt to get that money back? I am sure some do, but for the rest - it looks like it is a price paid to the USA for the privilege of owning real estate there.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  Local LLC owned by an offshore corp. Buy/sell the offshore corp, ergo no change in an US ownerships and poof, no withholdings. Actually, I think you can skip the LLC part. That becomes an issue if you want to later sell to a local, but if it's unaffordable to locals, who cares. Might be a non-issue if there's a tax-treaty reduction on withholding if the US was dumb enough to sign one with a tax haven (Canada does with Barbados and Bermuda) and you form the corp there. Not a lawyer/US resident/citizen.
lotsofpulp 5y ago
If you’re buying land in the US with a phone call or email, you are probably dealing with sufficient money to acquire an EB-5 Visa, so they can live in the US. Although, they did just increase investment amounts to $1.8M (and $900k for economically disadvantaged areas) from $1M/$500k, so the bar did get higher. https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/eb-5-immigrant-investor-program https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...
astrange 5y ago
If you live in Marin homes aren't expensive because of foreigners. It's because Marin is full of ravenous NIMBYs who haven't allowed any homes to be built since 1970. Especially "foreigners are buying homes to leave them vacant" is not a real thing - that does nothing except lose them money.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  For the former, it could be both. Gold is valuable because you can't just survey and frame up more of it. And real estate starts functioning like that when you can't survey and frame up more in an area. A vacant home has made good money in any desirable area, for the past 10 years anyway.

hippich 5y ago

Isn't there like 30% immediate tax that is required to be withheld by the agent and then later buyer is responsible to file a return to attempt to get that money back? I am sure some do, but for the rest - it looks like it is a price paid to the USA for the privilege of owning real estate there.

Scoundreller 5y ago
Local LLC owned by an offshore corp. Buy/sell the offshore corp, ergo no change in an US ownerships and poof, no withholdings. Actually, I think you can skip the LLC part. That becomes an issue if you want to later sell to a local, but if it's unaffordable to locals, who cares. Might be a non-issue if there's a tax-treaty reduction on withholding if the US was dumb enough to sign one with a tax haven (Canada does with Barbados and Bermuda) and you form the corp there. Not a lawyer/US resident/citizen.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

If you’re buying land in the US with a phone call or email, you are probably dealing with sufficient money to acquire an EB-5 Visa, so they can live in the US. Although, they did just increase investment amounts to $1.8M (and $900k for economically disadvantaged areas) from $1M/$500k, so the bar did get higher. https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/eb-5-immigrant-investor-program https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...

astrange 5y ago

If you live in Marin homes aren't expensive because of foreigners. It's because Marin is full of ravenous NIMBYs who haven't allowed any homes to be built since 1970. Especially "foreigners are buying homes to leave them vacant" is not a real thing - that does nothing except lose them money.

Scoundreller 5y ago
For the former, it could be both. Gold is valuable because you can't just survey and frame up more of it. And real estate starts functioning like that when you can't survey and frame up more in an area. A vacant home has made good money in any desirable area, for the past 10 years anyway.