Why is the Canadian housing market so crazy?

I'm 30 yah cunt, I just don't make excuses for myself. I already own a house and apartment building, and I did it without being wealthy.

Chinese money laundering. Super rich Chinese know the Yuan was going to be devalued, so they put money into bitcoin as a way to get it out of the country and switched it back to other currencies and bought assets. Canada was a good choice as there was less regulation than the USA.
The trade was so rampant, casinos in Macau statrted offering a yuan-to-bitcoin-to-Canadian service for "winnings"

As much as I like to hop onto the Chinese boogeyman hype train (which is actually to a certain extent true, but not nearly enough as people think it is) I think the main cause for the Canadian housing situation is very low interest rates thanks to the autistic children in government.

nah the FGYM attitude and NIMBYISM are the reason why housing prices are so expensive senpai

not bitching just stating the truth, i don't really care about owning property, i can invest in other shit and get good enough ROI without being a property bagholder

cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/local-investors-outnumber-foreign-buyers-10-1-in-toronto-s-condo-market-1.3825498

it's like this in vancouver too

Interest rates are low because the global economy is shit. The government doesn't decide what the interest rates are, the Bank of Canada does. They are trying to get more people to invest, unfortunately investment is being concentrated into one sector.

Who wouldn't want to invest into a sector that is "guaranteed" to increase in value year over year at ridiculous ROI? Not only that, but the majority of people own property and will vote to keep taxes low and gut regulation no matter what because hurr evil government.

Homeowners have set up a racket and this is the perfect storm for a depression. And when it hits people holding cash or highly liquid assets (not gold you fucktards) will be king.

Because of Chinks

>Interest rates are low because the global economy is shit.

Not exactly, though there is a lot of heard mentality between different countries, for sure.

>The government doesn't decide what the interest rates are, the Bank of Canada does.
..... You do realize that the finance minister of Canada oversees the Bank of Canada right? Poloz wouldn't be able to take a shit without some gov official telling him it's OK to.

>They are trying to get more people to invest, unfortunately investment is being concentrated into one sector.
I agree with this.

>Who wouldn't want to invest into a sector that is "guaranteed" to increase in value year over year at ridiculous ROI? Not only that, but the majority of people own property and will vote to keep taxes low and gut regulation no matter what because hurr evil government.
Normally I would agree, but houses are not primarily speculative assets, but places where normal families live. If you are a home buyer (majority of people) then usually you wouldn't care so much about return on investment like some investors. Second of all, taxes are not low. Quite the opposite.

>Homeowners have set up a racket and this is the perfect storm for a depression. And when it hits people holding cash or highly liquid assets (not gold you fucktards) will be king.

Personally, I think we are already in a depression. But as you said, maybe the illusion of wealth that so many home owners have may evaporate as well. Don't know why you have the prejudice against gold though, as it is much better than cash IMO.

Only because their definition of "local" is absurd. They buy the houses through the kids they send here to be educated.

Never trust the CBC, they are a fucking propaganda machine.

CMHC insurance is a big factor too. banks are incentivized to make irresponsible loans to people with a 5% downpayment because the canadian taxpayer will be on the hook if the mortgage defaults, thanks to CMHC. what could go wrong.

Is Canada real estate headed for same issue usa had in 2008?

Hongcouver and Toronto are in bubbles supported by foreign cash and speculators.

The rest of the country is overpriced due to cheap debt and stupid people but that will just carry on forever.

The finance minister does have oversight but if he did interfere that would be headline news and everyone would know about it. Poloz would probably leave on his own accord. They are supposed to stay away and leave the Bank to do its own thing, their role is to basically hire/fire the governors and let them do their jobs. Notice how when there is a government change that the Bank doesn't really change its policies?

The problem is that housing HAS become a speculative asset and people DO care about return on investment. More and more people are renting because of this, the property owners are speculators. At this point everyone owning and not renting is a speculator.

This is irrelevant to my comment but historically speaking, taxes are the lowest they've ever been. You can pretend they are still high if you like but the lack of property tax policy is leaving basic municipal government services unfunded. Property tax can serve as a relief valve for housing prices but homeowners refuse to implement it. They would be at least getting some of that money back through government services.

If the TTC was properly funded over the years they probably could have built a few subway lines by now and housing would be a LOT cheaper, instead of an extra $200 or so a month going to your mortgage, it could have gone to a subway.

Good luck selling your gold coins when shit hits the fan senpai.

Students aren't permanent residents or citizens of the country. That makes them a foreign national. And the study wasn't done by the CBC, it was done by a research firm, and the BC government did a similar survey with around the same results. Hope this helps.

Not really because Canadian banks are a lot more responsible than American in their lending practices.

However.

If interest rates rise (who knows when that is going to happen) the people who still have a mortgage will be pretty fucked. That in itself could influence the economy in Canada and banks to a certain extent.

>apartment building
nice how big? do you have a property management company do all the work, or do you handle things yourself? did you get a business loan from a bank to buy the apartment building? what % down would you need? are you in canada? i was thinking about buying a rental property in Windsor, ON (i dont live there) just because theyre so cheap there. 6 plexes for $300k.

They apply for citizenship as soon as they can. The waiting period is 6 months or so.

Half my classes were asians in various stages of getting citizenship.

yep, most students can't buy 31 million dollar mansions:

vancouversun.com/storyline/student-owns-31-1-million-point-grey-mansion

^this probably will be counted in their statistics as a local

>banks are incentivized to make irresponsible loans to people with a 5% downpayment because the canadian taxpayer will be on the hook if the mortgage defaults, thanks to CMHC
Of the real life people I know who bought property, all of their down payments were substantially larger than than 5% so I don't know where you got that figure from.

With that being said, you are correct. I think the CMHC is making things much more dangerous than safer in my opinion. Just another government fuck-up I suppose.

>The rest of the country is overpriced due to cheap debt and stupid people but that will just carry on forever.
Rest of the country isn't over priced. Oil-sand territories and maybe Montreal were meme-overpriced but it's Toronto and Vancouver that are the main issues in Canada.

P-1
>The finance minister does have oversight but if he did interfere that would be headline news and everyone would know about it.
>They are supposed to stay away and leave the Bank to do its own thing, their role is to basically hire/fire the governors and let them do their jobs.
That's the official story, yes. But I don't believe that's realistically the case, similar to the Fed in the U.S.

>Notice how when there is a government change that the Bank doesn't really change its policies?
Because both parties don't want to end the party (no pun intended). Low interest rates are "safe" now because everyone is doing it and you're not putting people out of their homes. If ever a party wanted to do the right thing and set interest rates at normal levels, that party is toast

>The problem is that housing HAS become a speculative asset and people DO care about return on investment.
Strongly disagree with this. If one person/family owns multiple properties then the ones that are not considered primary residence may be considered speculative assets. Otherwise they are not.

>lack of property tax policy
Don't know wtf you're talking about. Plenty of property taxes in Toronto.

You need a full time job or a masters/phd to be able to become a permanent resident or obtain citizenship. At which point, why is it wrong for them to own property?

Is Canadian citizenship easier to get than US?

P-2
>If the TTC was properly funded over the years they probably could have built a few subway lines by now and housing would be a LOT cheaper, instead of an extra $200 or so a month going to your mortgage, it could have gone to a subway.
Agreed that TTC is underfunded (don't think properties would be cheaper, but to him his own). But judging by how large all other taxes are (property tax, income tax, sales tax, airport tax, etc, etc.) it's amazing to believe that a city like Toronto is getting less funds than other cities in the world. It's not that people are not paying enough, it just reverts back to government shits being too corrupt and incompetent to do anything about it. I could give them a trillion dollars and it wouldn't make a difference.

>Good luck selling your gold coins when shit hits the fan senpai.
Actually don't have any. But hopefully in the future I will. And I won't be buying coins and I won't be storing them in this country. Gold is a hardcore savings instrument. I want to have a stash of something of value that inflation can't touch to give to my kids (if I get any) that won't be destroyed by government like everything else.

>Rest of the country isn't over priced.

This could be a matter of opinion. I think it's overpriced for the reason stated (cheap money and stupid people). You may be fine with it, but there is no debate that if we were not awash with cheap, easy money houses and land would be less expensive.

They are not applying to become Canadians, they are applying to get the benefits of being Canadians while remaining loyal to their home countries.

Yes.

>They are not applying to become Canadians, they are applying to get the benefits of being Canadians while remaining loyal to their home countries.
They can't even become Canadian. You have to be white for that.

Political influence into a central bank's decisions would destroy confidence the currency and capital will run away as fast as possible. Full stop.

You can disagree with me about primary residences not being speculative assets. You can also be wrong, I don't really care.

>Don't know wtf you're talking about. Plenty of property taxes in Toronto.
>It's not that people are not paying enough, it just reverts back to government shits being too corrupt and incompetent to do anything about it. I could give them a trillion dollars and it wouldn't make a difference.

Acknowledge the fact that higher property taxes would make housing costs cheaper because now most speculators can't afford ridiculous mortgages and that all government spending is not waste. Go on, I'm waiting.

Then they are being put into the "foreign national" category and a small minority of foreign nationals are buying property as per multiple studies. Not an issue, thanks for wasting everyone's time.

>Acknowledge the fact that higher property taxes would make housing costs cheaper because now most speculators can't afford ridiculous mortgages and that all government spending is not waste.

Not all government spending is a waste. Just a lot of it.

And the higher property tax will make the normal people not be able to afford ridiculous mortgages much earlier than the foreign investors and well-off people in the country so that's not as great an option either.

Then property owners would get getting some utility out of paying more in property taxes. How much utility do they get out of paying more to the bank, to the builders, to the real estate agents? Nothing, they just keep the bubble going. Not saying that we should be doing something extreme, there is a balance to maintain.

Even if property taxes go up, renters can only afford so much. At some point the consumer can't bear the cost being passed onto them. People already spend over 50% of their incomes on housing right now. A renter isn't going to be able to pay more than 50% of their income because they have other needs, and they can't get credit to pay for a property they don't own.

The article you linked says nothing about how they distinguished foreign from non-foreign aside from having a primary residence in Canada. Also it was done by a condo research firm.

Here's an article from a SFU prof with the opposite opinion.

ctvnews.ca/business/foreign-buyers-crushing-home-dreams-in-vancouver-study-1.2893140

Also can we not do the bitchy housewife bullshit and have an adult conversation?

Forgot to link the study

scribd.com/doc/311898574/Vancouver-s-Housing-Affordability-Crisis-Report-2016-Final-Version

Fair enough, the study I linked does not look to be accurate

Here's statistics from the BC government. They specifically stated citizenship in this one.

d2ciprw05cjhos.cloudfront.net/files/v3/files/bcgovthousingdata1_160707.pdf

News article about this report:
straight.com/news/733211/preliminary-government-data-vancouver-home-sales-says-less-five-percent-go-foreign

>Canada

The issue with the BC govt stats are it's citizens and permanent residents. The latter being where the students fall in. You have to keep in mind all governments love foreign investment, and they tried for a long time to convince people the housing prices were not due to it so they could keep reaping the rewards.

Only when public opinion turned against foreign ownership despite a lot of groups best efforts to downplay it did they grudgingly do something about it.

Foreign national students are not permanent residents. They come on study permits and if they don't get an extension they get kicked out.

There is a path to permanent residency if they want to stay and get full time jobs, or have advanced or in demand degrees.

Overleverage by 90k/year combined drones taking 7500k mortgages + Chinese overseas money

>They are not applying to become Canadians, they are applying to get the benefits of being Canadians while remaining loyal to their home countries.
International money (think 5-10M and up) is only loyal to itself, not to single nation. In every war for example, international money either collaborated or fled.

Quebec loophole by lending Gov't 800k interest free = Perm residency

>Foreign national students are not permanent residents

They are not automatically permanent residents, but it's a simple jump from a student visa to a permanent resident card. If you have the kind of money to buy a million dollar house as a wealth fund it's a trivial matter.

As mentioned here and in the linked SUF article there was a program to gain outright citizenship by lending the govt money and proving you had a high net worth which is now defunct. If we were giving outright citizenship away for cash do you really imagine there is no way for high net worth people to gain permanent resident status easily?

Why do you think they included permanent residents with citizens in that graph?

Sounds exactly like Australia

Yeah it's a simple jump... if you have money and are willing to "create jobs" or give the government free money. At which point you are contributing to society just like any other citizen.

The study has three points talking about foreign investors: one of them is the program that you are talking about. Here is a study done by the government from 2007 to 2011.
cic.gc.ca/english/resources/evaluation/bip/08.asp

You can go through the statistics for yourself and see that the investment (IN) class was a drop in the bucket.

Second point is that people with non anglicized names are buying houses. Doesn't tell you anything about their contribution to society, whether they were citizens or not so it can safely be discarded.
Third point is oh my god $1 trillion USD has left China. Not directly attributable.

There are a lot of working permanent residents here who have lived here a long time and declaring that they are not allowed to buy property or unfairly tax them would piss off quite a few people. They've integrated into our society.