A year ago, the federal government instituted a foreign buyer ban after passing the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act in 2022. The two-year ban, which came into effect on Jan. 1, barred non-citizens, non-permanent residents and foreign controlled companies from buying up Canadian property as an investment.
But Wallace says that ban didn’t do much for her family.
“There’s all of these very luxurious buildings going in all around us that are outrageously priced,” said Wallace, after attending an open house at a promising $1.1-million condo. “The foreign buyers tax … I don’t think that’s making an iota of difference.”
Critics say the foreign buyers ban, which was aimed at making housing affordable for Canadians, had many exemptions and was more of a political manoeuvre. They say it’s clear housing remains out of reach for too many in Canada, and that the country should look to other places in the world to find strategies to foster home ownership.
Because there is no reforming capitalism, it is designed to funnel money and resources upwards.
Critics say the foreign buyers ban, which was aimed at making housing affordable for Canadians, had many exemptions and was more of a political manoeuvre.
That’s disgusting. This is for placating/misleading voters and keeping the status quo as it is. If a ban is not a ban it shouldn’t be called a ban
For real. “Why didn’t a measure that didn’t actually do what it says it would work?!”
It is working as intended though: Make voters believe that an important issue that affects them is being addressed, and don’t actually do anything that would negatively affect the plutocrats or address wealth inequality. The first step was to create a boogey-man out of ‘foreign buyers’ to centre the housing affordability debate around a PR-friendly issue.
What I’m starting to realize though - through seeing this more and more - is that doublespeak phrases or talking points, like “ban”, play a pretty critical role in keeping us misinformed and easily swayed. The term “ban”, although factually incorrect, fits the government’s agenda of self-promotion and fits CBC’s agenda of reporting uncritically of the status quo. We can only begin to understand what’s happening after realizing that “ban” doesn’t actually mean what “ban” typically does in English.
Sorry, I’m kind of going off on a rant. M/Disinformation and the current/future state of democracy concern me a lot.
One thing I’m coming to the realization of, after learning that the recent online news bill has several shortcomings that the government failed to mention and will exclude smaller news outlets, is that financially supporting the dying breed of high-quality, critical journalism is a democratic imperative
I moved from the US in the summer and purchased a house in BC. My wife (who is still American) was no allowed to be on the deed, otherwise we would have to pay a giant tax bill. So it at least works against the little guy, if not against the corporate buyers or people rich enough to pay workarounds.
Ley says Singapore controls “investor play” in the housing market “so there is opportunity for local buyers to be successful.”
So more aggressive taxes?
In a word, yes.
When a foreign ownership tax was previously used in Canada, the rate wasn’t 15%. It was fifty percent
Wow that’s heavy.
It’s because there are numerous factors at play. Low interest rates combined with investors (some of whom are foreign), Airbnb hotels, along with record high immigration and minimal supply expansion all contribute to the problem. All play an aggravating role, but that means that there isn’t a single silver bullet to solve the problem.
It’s frustrating to me when people argue about whether it’s a supply side issue or a demand side issue - it’s both! There aren’t enough homes for people AND it didn’t help that people had to compete with investors with below-inflation interest rates.
Trudeau : we must double down.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Though Housing Minister Sean Fraser’s office declined an interview request, his spokesperson said the government had worked with cities across the country to help “over 250,000 new homes get built over the next decade.”
The CMHC said Ottawa is “working to ensure every Canadian … has an affordable place to call home,” citing moves to forgive GST from newly constructed rental units, $20-billion in apartment financing and other initiatives.
Earlier in November, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said that rather than helping to make housing affordable, the government’s policies have instead “made the problem worse.”
Thomas Davidoff, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, and UBC PhD student Keling Zheng studied the effect of foreign buyer taxes in B.C.
According to Davidoff, high-end home prices did plummet initially after the foreign buyers ban — but he says the real driver was soaring interest rates that triggered an economic slowdown.
The retired UBC Urban Geography professor says Canada could learn from success stories like Singapore, which boasted one of the highest home ownership rates in the world in 2022 at 89 per cent.
The original article contains 1,198 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
There are zoning issues and missing middle issues and so on, but there is one thing that everyone keeps saying won’t work while saying all of the stuff they’ve been doing will work (and doesn’t).
Fucking cap the sale and/or resale price of houses. Don’t expect the capitalists to make life easier on others at the expense of their bottom line, STOP them from doing it outright.
When they complain, build housing as the government which you can rent control without lobbyists yelling at you.
Developers may go away, but I doubt we’ll lose them all, or even most of them.