Canada's 'housing bubble' deemed close to bursting

[st7860]

People don't buy their way into Canada. Buying a house in Canada does absolutely nothing for a foreigner except make some money. Even when the immigrant investor program was in effect you couldn't buy your way into Canada. All that happened was that money was deposited with the Government and given back later, with a PR card. Its the US and some European countries which is where you can 'buy' something and get permanent residence.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

Wet climate? Halifax gets more precipitation than Vancouver in a year, and even Toronto only gets slightly less. In the summer months, Vancouver is one of Canada's drier cities.

Trust me I was born here and that kind of design is spectacularly unsuitable to Vancouver's wet winters. look at the porch and wwindow overhnags, they actually angle back towards the house directing water to the wall.

That's what happens when people with little knowledge of local climes get sold a bill of goods by builders. In the Nineties those fleeing the impending takeover of Hong Kong built these ugly pink stucco houses with tile (!) roofs that may have looked great in California but were completely unsuitable to Vancouver.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by st7860

People don't buy their way into Canada. Buying a house in Canada does absolutely nothing for a foreigner except make some money. Even when the immigrant investor program was in effect you couldn't buy your way into Canada. All that happened was that money was deposited with the Government and given back later, with a PR card. Its the US and some European countries which is where you can 'buy' something and get permanent residence.

That's not a world of difference though - it still meant only those with access to large sums of spare cash could access Canada that way.

[crazycrazydoesdoes]

Originally Posted by dleung

How are they at a disadvantage? Maybe we should do what universities already do and try reverse-affirmative action... bring back the immigrant investor program but double the required GPA - I mean $$$ - for the Chinese

Originally Posted by cornholio

Western countries are not corrupt and there fore citizens actually have to jump through ridiculous hoops created to try and catch fraud from corrupt developing countries...
Western immigrants simply don't have the same opportunities to commit fraud to simplify the process because their countries are not corrupt yet they are forced through ridiculous hoops that make it not worth the effort... Hence western immigration is at a disadvantage. People with money from corrupt and and unequal countries have a huge advantage over western immigrants...
...We bring in a disproportional number of immigrants from developing countries with lots of money who can "buy" their way in.

This is hilarious. Yeah lets instead bring in immigrants who are poor and will burden our social services. All those crime families from corrupt Hong Kong taking over Vancouver in the 90's and 2000's are to blame for the city's real estate prices

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by crazycrazydoesdoes

This is hilarious. Yeah lets instead bring in immigrants who are poor and will burden our social services. All those crime families from corrupt Hong Kong taking over Vancouver in the 90's and 2000's are to blame for the city's real estate prices

Me and my family came here via the refugee program with nothing but the clothes on our backs and three luggage bags each. Are you saying we were a burden? Everyone in my family has contribute and earned well above the median wage. After all the feds hinted quite well that the investor class immigrants ts on average have contributed less then even care givers over the past 25 years. Investor class immigrants are just wealthy immigrants. You think wealthy immigrants contribute? Work hard? Work smart? Wealthy immigrants should be avoided. Educated middle class immigrants regardless of wealth should be the target group.
You see this is why I have strong socialist leanings even though I have done well for my self. Inequality is not a good thing.

Now we are way of topic. Maybe start a new thread on immigration policy. I just take great offense to your description of "poor immigrants" given the fact I am one and I dam well contribute. But you know who I often never see contribute? Yeah wealthy immigrants who just leech of off everyone else's hard work.

[Procrastinational]

Originally Posted by cornholio

Me and my family came here via the refugee program with nothing but the clothes on our backs and three luggage bags each. Are you saying we were a burden? Everyone in my family has contribute and earned well above the median wage. After all the feds hinted quite well that the investor class immigrants ts on average have contributed less then even care givers over the past 25 years. Investor class immigrants are just wealthy immigrants. You think wealthy immigrants contribute? Work hard? Work smart? Wealthy immigrants should be avoided. Educated middle class immigrants regardless of wealth should be the target group.
You see this is why I have strong socialist leanings even though I have done well for my self. Inequality is not a good thing.

Now we are way of topic. Maybe start a new thread on immigration policy. I just take great offense to your description of "poor immigrants" given the fact I am one and I dam well contribute. But you know who I often never see contribute? Yeah wealthy immigrants who just leech of off everyone else's hard work.

Seems like the immigrants that come here with nothing have a much stronger work ethic. I agree that we should be targeting educated immigrants regardless of wealth, and that we should probably shy away from bringing in too many who are already very wealthy.

There's no incentive to work hard so that your children can have a better life if you already have it made. To top that off, the children of wealthy people in generally can often be spoiled brats that have no concept of the value of money or hard work, so they don't contribute much to Canadian society either.

[st7860]

Originally Posted by crazycrazydoesdoes

This is hilarious. Yeah lets instead bring in immigrants who are poor and will burden our social services. All those crime families from corrupt Hong Kong taking over Vancouver in the 90's and 2000's are to blame for the city's real estate prices

Doesn't matter to me if people buy things as long as they are not a burden right!

[rbt]

Originally Posted by cornholio

Me and my family came here via the refugee program with nothing but the clothes on our backs and three luggage bags each. Are you saying we were a burden? Everyone in my family has contribute and earned well above the median wage.

You probably were if you look at strictly at dollars received and ignore dollars contributed. One of the most expensive social programs in Canada is the RRSP program which scales up with income to a point.

[cornholio]

Originally Posted by rbt

You probably were if you look at strictly at dollars received and ignore dollars contributed. One of the most expensive social programs in Canada is the RRSP program which scales up with income to a point.

RRSP? Not following. Maybe you mean OAS, GIS ans CPP which literally takes advantage of immigrants. RRSP's are a joke unless you have a high income early in life with "excess" funds. RRSP's are a bad choice for immigrants over I would say 30 and those with out a very high income. But that's my opinion.

[theman23]

Do we really have that many immigrants that are wealthy? Are you seriously suggesting overhauling our entire immigration policy because of the percieved effect of a few rich people?

[rbt]

Originally Posted by cornholio

RRSP? Not following. Maybe you mean OAS, GIS ans CPP which literally takes advantage of immigrants. RRSP's are a joke unless you have a high income early in life with "excess" funds. RRSP's are a bad choice for immigrants over I would say 30 and those with out a very high income. But that's my opinion.

You said:

"Me and my family came here via the refugee program with nothing but the clothes on our backs and three luggage bags each. Are you saying we were a burden? Everyone in my family has contribute and earned well above the median wage."

I assumed, since it sounded like your family had been here for a while and you all have above median wage, that you would be contributing to RRSPs as a tax avoidance mechanism. As far as social programs go, it takes more money (income tax revenue) out of the governments pockets than nearly any other social program.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by rbt

You said:

"Me and my family came here via the refugee program with nothing but the clothes on our backs and three luggage bags each. Are you saying we were a burden? Everyone in my family has contribute and earned well above the median wage."

I assumed, since it sounded like your family had been here for a while and you all have above median wage, that you would be contributing to RRSPs as a tax avoidance mechanism. As far as social programs go, it takes more money (income tax revenue) out of the governments pockets than nearly any other social program.

You mean "tax deferral mechanism".

[1overcosc]

I sometimes wonder if it would be better to remove the RRSP program entirely and use the money for higher OAS payments instead.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by st7860

People don't buy their way into Canada. Buying a house in Canada does absolutely nothing for a foreigner except make some money. Even when the immigrant investor program was in effect you couldn't buy your way into Canada. All that happened was that money was deposited with the Government and given back later, with a PR card. Its the US and some European countries which is where you can 'buy' something and get permanent residence.

They're not trying to make money on real estate. Try laundering money.

This recent article from the South China Morning Post points out that cities like Vancouver and Toronto and certain of their suburbs are destinations for Mainland Chinese trying to buy properties to get money out of Red China:

...With respect to houses in Vancouver, Richmond, and Toronto, that is a different story,” said Duhaime.

“People from mainland China routinely buy houses for millions of dollars in cash in Canada and those transactions may be problematic for money laundering. Real estate agents in Canada apply very relaxed anti-money laundering standards on real estate sales."

Duhaime said that real estate agents have the same anti-money laundering obligations as casinos "but do not apply the same level of stringent controls".

“If there is a place where a crackdown is needed, it is with real estate purchases," she said.... (bold mine)

http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/articl...gh-rollers-its-realtors-who-gamble-money

[st7860]

Thats just a news story quoting a lawyer.

It isn't money laundering unless the realtor in Canada misreports the known source of the funds.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by st7860

Thats just a news story quoting a lawyer.

It isn't money laundering unless the realtor in Canada misreports the known source of the funds.

Is there actually any onus on the realtor to look into the source of the income (i.e. beyond the fact that it came from Mrs X)? That would seem more the domain of banks and lawyers trust accounts.

[st7860]

The realtors(in BC anyway) are required to fill out a know your customer form. However its kind of stretching it to say people are laundering money just because it happens to be an unusual form.

[SignalHillHiker]

CBC has a story up about the price difference between SFD and condos hitting almost $300,000 in TO.

Comments are SSP on steroids. One missus from Halifax praising her suburb 20 minutes from the core. "Most Torontonians will never have anything close to this". TO people like, "But it's a suburb of Halifax? You're welcome to it..."

Dying laughing. We may be homers but we're not THAT bad.

[Innsertnamehere]

My choice of where I live is far superior to where you choose to live! HAHAHAHA

Its incomprehensible to many that people actually have different preferences on where they want to live.. they automatically assume that everyone thinks the same way they do. What is a horrible concrete jungle to them is a bustling city full of life to others..

[rbt]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

You mean "tax deferral mechanism".

No, I mean tax avoidance. Most people investing with a higher than average income often have a much lower income when they take the money out.

Money invested is off your top income tax bracket and comes out at a lower tax bracket (subject to tax law change between those 2 time periods). The discounted amount of tax paid is much lower.