Canada bans most foreigners from buying homes

[BeatMan]

OTTAWA: A ban on foreigners buying residential property in Canada took effect on Sunday (Jan 1), aiming to make more homes available to locals facing a housing crunch.

Several exceptions in the act allow individuals such as refugees and permanent residents who are not citizens to buy homes.

In late December, Ottawa also clarified that the ban would apply only to city dwellings and not to recreational properties such as summer cottages.

The temporary two-year measure was proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2021 election campaign when soaring prices put home ownership beyond the reach of many Canadians.

"The desirability of Canadian homes is attracting profiteers, wealthy corporations, and foreign investors," his Liberal Party said in its election plank at the time.

"This is leading to a real problem of underused and vacant housing, rampant speculation, and skyrocketing prices. Homes are for people, not investors."

Following their 2021 election victory, the Liberals quietly introduced the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act.


https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/canada-bans-most-foreigners-buying-homes-3178116

 

[JohnEBbad]

The Mexican model and Mexico is such a paragon of first-world wealth generation.

 

[dkovic77]

OTTAWA: A ban on foreigners buying residential property in Canada took effect on Sunday (Jan 1), aiming to make more homes available to locals facing a housing crunch.

Several exceptions in the act allow individuals such as refugees and permanent residents who are not citizens to buy homes.

In late December, Ottawa also clarified that the ban would apply only to city dwellings and not to recreational properties such as summer cottages.

The temporary two-year measure was proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2021 election campaign when soaring prices put home ownership beyond the reach of many Canadians.

"The desirability of Canadian homes is attracting profiteers, wealthy corporations, and foreign investors," his Liberal Party said in its election plank at the time.

"This is leading to a real problem of underused and vacant housing, rampant speculation, and skyrocketing prices. Homes are for people, not investors."

Following their 2021 election victory, the Liberals quietly introduced the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act.


https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/canada-bans-most-foreigners-buying-homes-3178116

And there is an issue why exactly? Are folks in the US jealous they didn’t think of this sooner?

Feels like this would fit in the MAGA America first perspective.

Maybe I spoke too soon, will hear someone like MTG parroting this sometime this week.

 

[oggbashan]

It is a problem in parts of the UK too. In Cornwall and Wales, councils are considering double or triple the annual council tax for second homes.

In London, it is mainly the very high end properties that are bought by or for foreigners.

The real problem in the UK is that for decades we have not been building enough new homes, and those that ae built are usually far beyond the affordability for local youngsters. When we married, three times an annual salary was an affordable house. Now the cheapest are seven of eight times an annual salary. That's just impossible.

 

[JohnEBbad]

I guess it's been so long for you, but one of the facets of life for the young is universal sans silver spoon syndrome, youth have no experience, no wealth and few prospects; it is the time of life to establish one's self for the responsibilities (and resources) of middle age, like home ownership.

 

[JohnEBbad]

The real question is, how are you doing on the investment in and establishment of affordable rent properties?

 

[oggbashan]

The real question is, how are you doing on the investment in and establishment of affordable rent properties?

Not well. Because house prices and therefore mortgages are so high, few people want to buy to rent and those that have properties to rent are finding their costs rising so that it becomes uneconomic. Rents are rising fast to try to make renting profitable and to recognise the comparitive rarity of places to rent, but too fast for those who want to rent. In 2022 the number of rented homes in my town fell by a quarter.

We have friends who have moved five times in the last ten years because each successive property had either had a rent increase they couldn't afford, or their landlord has stopped renting and sold the property. The immediately previous house - they were paying £1,200 a month and the landlord wanted to increase it by £200 a month which they couldn't afford. They left and he sold the property for about 20% more than had been expected after a bidding war because it was relatively cheap and not in good repair.

 

[JohnEBbad]

That's a bad sign indeed. I think it leads to tent cities and shantytowns...

 

[oggbashan]

That's a bad sign indeed. I think it leads to tent cities and shantytowns...

Not yet in the UK, but the number of street sleepers is creeping up. There are local charities that try to help, and some hostel accommoation but what works for singles, doesn't for families and our local council hasn't got enough emergency accommodation.

 

[JohnEBbad]

Our most Liberal cities (especially on the Left coast) feature street sleepers and support their Gaia-given right to do so since Capitalism has robbed them of all of their human potential. (They are also of the mindset that they are much safer if they are provided with clean needles.) I also noticed a lot of that in Denver when I last was there...

A free-range person is more a human than the Capitalist Republicans who exploit them.

:nods:

 

[oggbashan]

We try to persuade street sleepers to move to supported hostels but there usually aren't enough places and some are just so cantankerous and/or drug dependent that they won't come inside.

Another real problem is the number of illegal immigrants coming by boat (45,000 in 2022). The UK has to accomodate them, and ther are so many that almost all possible accommodation is full.

We also have hundreds of thousands of Ukrainain refugees but most are accommodated in private homes.

 

[JohnEBbad]

We share the same problem. Those who view closed borders as cruel and unusual treatment of peoples just seeking a better life have no problem whatsoever with impoverishing their neighbors in the name of doing good/right by the economic refugees of failed political systems.

But, eventually, things do get so bad that the host country ceases to be viewed as a safe harbor with benefits.

That's when those with any sort of wealth tend to begin a flight of their own from economic tyranny.

 

[JohnEBbad]

Our most Liberal cities (especially on the Left coast) feature street sleepers and support their Gaia-given right to do so since Capitalism has robbed them of all of their human potential. (They are also of the mindset that they are much safer if they are provided with clean needles.) I also noticed a lot of that in Denver when I last was there...

A free-range person is more a human than the Capitalist Republicans who exploit them.

:nods:

More on Denver's wokeness, sanctuary status and the plight of their undocumented citizen's in Denver's tough winter environment (I guess they were counting on GlowBall Warning to mitigate the plight of their beloved migrants, who of course, are strengthening Denver's moral climate, economy and diversity.).

https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-...jihad-mastermind-as-featured-speaker-n1657753


Some pull quotes:

Denver recently received in influx of migrants, much to the consternation of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. As reported by the Denver Post, “The migrants and asylum seekers were coming either on their own or at the encouragement of nonprofit organizations at the border that have provided recommendations for places they can go without advanced notice.”

As an aside, these migrants not too long ago were called “illegal aliens”. Bill Clinton was not a racist or xenophobe when common sense was still in fashion in America, and he used that term as an accurate descriptor. Now they are described as “undocumented migrants”, and they are arriving in Denver by the hundreds. It’s so bad in Denver that Mayor Hancock issued an emergency declaration since these recent arrivals have placed, “Immense strain on city recourses to the level where they’re on the verge of reaching a breaking point at this time.”

Of course, they are a strain, just as a bunch of permanent houseguests would be to most homeowners. But that pesky reality was irrelevant to the virtue signaling mayor and other local elected officials when they only had to talk the talk but not walk the walk.

With the recent bitter cold weather it has gotten so bad that the Denver Post headlined, “Denver stretched to ‘breaking point’ amid migrant crisis and brutal cold snap, mayor warns.” This is undoubtedly true but is this not what the mayor once asked for?

Denver is a proud sanctuary city, “In 2017, the Denver City Council codified Denver’s status as a sanctuary city with an ordinance that prohibits city employees from collecting information on immigration or citizenship status, or prohibits the sharing of any other information about individuals for purposes of immigration enforcement.”

 

[JohnEBbad]

I object to the term "undocumented migrants" when what they really are are "undocumented citizens" of Denver...

 

[oggbashan]

The boat people arriving in the UK are 'documented' if they come from a dangerous country such as Iran or Afghanistan, but if they come from a 'safe' country such as Albania they tend to destroy any documentation before getting on a boat. Even so, of the 46,000 who arrived in 2022, 10,000+ were identified as single Albanian men.

The UK has a growing problem with criminal Albanian gangs taking over drugs and prostitution from UK criminals. Some, certainly not all, of the Albanian boat peopel are recruits for the Albanian gangs and/or enforced by debt slavery to run cannabis farms etc.

The UK now has an agreement to send Albanians back to their country, particularly those with existing criminal records in Albania, or who have committed crimes in the UK since arrival, even if they claim to be 'victims'.

So far only a few dozen have been sent back to Albania. We will see if more are sent and whether that reduces the demand from Albanians to use the boats.

 

[JohnEBbad]

Sounds like the same meaningless virtue-signaling employed here. Exactly like it.

We'll pick an extremely small subset to react to and then pontificate on our great strides and efforts towards border security and "you're welcome for all that cheap labor." Our domestic and legal minorities just won't work for "those" wages...

 

[Philthy_Phil]

This is the second thing Trudeau did that I approve of. The first was legalizing weed.

 

[zotique]

WAY too late. That ship sailed after Expo 86 in Vancouver then the 2010 Olympics.

Billions of international gangster money flowed into the Canadian real estate laundromat.

 

[phrodeau]

Maybe we should kick Bolsonaro out of Florida.

 

[YDB95]

Maybe we should kick Bolsonaro out of Florida.

DeathSentence could always put him on a plane to points north.