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Canadian here. While AirBNB can be a problem, the real problem is not AirBNB. It's actually housing as an investment rather than a place to live. You can shut d

Canadian here. While AirBNB can be a problem, the real problem is not AirBNB. It's actually housing as an investment rather than a place to live. You can shut down AirBNB or regulate it or whatever, but as long as you've got housing as a lucractive investment with not enough new housing being built, you're going to get people trading it like the stock market. I mean, come on, we've got a finite amount of land. Property investors like articles like this because they shift the blame. How about instead a regulation over how many houses/apartments a person can own? How about a maximum of one? Or I bet even two would slow it down.

jfabre 3y ago
I think you're unto something. Totally anecdotal, but my father owns around ~10 houses and small apartment buildings in Canada. I think he managed to acquire them all through mortgage refinancing or something like that I really have no idea. He rents the properties to people. Even though he's a hard worker, he has a normal 9-5 job and his income is pretty standard for a salaried worker. Knowing him, I'm sure he didn't come up with the idea himself, so I bet this is a relatively common thing to do for mid to high income baby-boomers. I could be totally off base here, but I can see that if most people have the leverage to own 10 houses in Canada through some financial instruments with the banks this could lead to a housing bubble.
- pmontra 3y ago
  He's your father. It should be easy to ask him how he managed to buy 10 houses.
  - jfabre 3y ago
    I haven't talked to him in years.
dimask 3y ago
Totally agree, but imo airbnb is an accelerator making the profit out of housing investment more lucrative, increasing short term profit margins (instead of let's say owning buildings and maintaining them for long term renters producing gradual but steady profit). It has also accelerated the concentration of real estate to fewer companies. The problem is that now the market is like this, even if airbnb just disappeared.
- vouaobrasil 3y ago
  Yes, it is true, it is definitely an accelerator.
- danlugo92 3y ago
  I have a dozen comments in this post... ...and mostly siding with the "common" people but actually proposing sustainable (economically, not talking ecologically in here at all) solutions... ...but your comment just made me think of... ...what if the government focuses on making housing cheaper... ...repeal all or most zoning laws etc... ...that's one solution, with its dis-advantages of courses but... ...if that's what people want... ...if that's what Canadiants want... ...subject it to maybe one national vote or not... ...if people decide "ok let's do away with zoning laws" then that's their prerogative right...?
theragra 3y ago
People in the know will game the system, poor will suffer, as always. If you only can own one house, how companies who build and sell them can operate? If we make an exception for them, suddenly all companies become builders who build one house in 5 years Etc etc
- danlugo92 3y ago
  > all companies become builders Require "ultimate beneficiary" disclosure (easy for the government to do), require this ultimate beneficiary to have the equivalent of a SSN. Or, for foreigners (if you still want to allow that...), have a "vouching" system where 1 Canada national (holder of whatever the SSN equivalent is) to sponsor up to N non-Canadians, cap N. The sponsor can be a Canadian lawyer or notary signing on behalf of "Chinese person #18940" but they would still be capped at N. Not sure if this works or not, but there's also a distinctive refusal of average Joe go live in the country you know, so that also drives up the demand for real state near cities as opposed to the vast available land area Canada (or the US) occupies. All of this could be applied in the US as well, they already do it with bank accounts for what it's worth, look it up...

jfabre 3y ago

I think you're unto something. Totally anecdotal, but my father owns around ~10 houses and small apartment buildings in Canada. I think he managed to acquire them all through mortgage refinancing or something like that I really have no idea. He rents the properties to people. Even though he's a hard worker, he has a normal 9-5 job and his income is pretty standard for a salaried worker. Knowing him, I'm sure he didn't come up with the idea himself, so I bet this is a relatively common thing to do for mid to high income baby-boomers. I could be totally off base here, but I can see that if most people have the leverage to own 10 houses in Canada through some financial instruments with the banks this could lead to a housing bubble.

pmontra 3y ago
He's your father. It should be easy to ask him how he managed to buy 10 houses.
- jfabre 3y ago
  I haven't talked to him in years.

dimask 3y ago

Totally agree, but imo airbnb is an accelerator making the profit out of housing investment more lucrative, increasing short term profit margins (instead of let's say owning buildings and maintaining them for long term renters producing gradual but steady profit). It has also accelerated the concentration of real estate to fewer companies. The problem is that now the market is like this, even if airbnb just disappeared.

vouaobrasil 3y ago
Yes, it is true, it is definitely an accelerator.
danlugo92 3y ago
I have a dozen comments in this post... ...and mostly siding with the "common" people but actually proposing sustainable (economically, not talking ecologically in here at all) solutions... ...but your comment just made me think of... ...what if the government focuses on making housing cheaper... ...repeal all or most zoning laws etc... ...that's one solution, with its dis-advantages of courses but... ...if that's what people want... ...if that's what Canadiants want... ...subject it to maybe one national vote or not... ...if people decide "ok let's do away with zoning laws" then that's their prerogative right...?

theragra 3y ago

People in the know will game the system, poor will suffer, as always. If you only can own one house, how companies who build and sell them can operate? If we make an exception for them, suddenly all companies become builders who build one house in 5 years Etc etc

danlugo92 3y ago
> all companies become builders Require "ultimate beneficiary" disclosure (easy for the government to do), require this ultimate beneficiary to have the equivalent of a SSN. Or, for foreigners (if you still want to allow that...), have a "vouching" system where 1 Canada national (holder of whatever the SSN equivalent is) to sponsor up to N non-Canadians, cap N. The sponsor can be a Canadian lawyer or notary signing on behalf of "Chinese person #18940" but they would still be capped at N. Not sure if this works or not, but there's also a distinctive refusal of average Joe go live in the country you know, so that also drives up the demand for real state near cities as opposed to the vast available land area Canada (or the US) occupies. All of this could be applied in the US as well, they already do it with bank accounts for what it's worth, look it up...