Paul Wildy

I think it could go lower over the next few months but there are bound to be little rebounds along the way. You might be able to get more than that if you timed it right but it will depend on how much flexibility you have with the timing. If you need the money by a certain date then it would be a risky strategy to wait for a little peak.

Surrey Expat

Any rental income forms part of your worldwide income, therefore should be declared on your tax return, tax is payable at your marginal rate. Expenses are deductible as well though, including mortgage interest on a rental property. If the house is in joint names and both owners live in Canada, the income and gain can be split proportionaly to the interest in the asset.

As your property is valued over $100,000 it should be declared on your Canadian tax return. If the house is not your primary residence at the time of disposal, any gain made on the value after your took up PR status is taxable in Canada as a capital gain.

Before deciding on how good an investment this might be, I would suggest talking to a financial adviser (paid, not a commission one). They can help you do some calculations to determine if this would be the best place for your investment. There are too many variables to consider to be able to make a broad statement as to how good the investment is.

Iain Mc

I walked into HBSC in Vancouver today with a crisp twenty pound note and walked out with forty Canadian dollars and fifty cents.

Maybe I'll get my parents to Fedex me suitcases of cash from the UK that I can change over the counter in the branch, seems to be a better rate than I've seen anywhere else!

Also of note is the fact that you can operate a USD account alongside your CAD one for no charge with HSBC here, so when looking to shift cash out of Blighty you have the option.

I still think the maths favours a GBP-USD-CAD dogleg rather than GBP-CAD, especially when the two dollar accounts are both held in the same location and moving cash between them at a spot rate doesn't seem to attract anything particularly punative in the way of commission or charges (actually, no commission or charges, and the rates aren't exactly miserly).

I was even offered a GBP account to go with the other two today!

Cheers, Iain

cneldred

It was NOT that low yesterday the agent is lying to you. 1.97 and change was the low of the day.

Chris

Danny B

I changed £1,500 cash back in July and these people had a much better rate than any other company in town. http://www.vbce.info/index.cfm?fuseaction=Locations

mclauchlan35

Hi Chris

Won't the fact that it is low effect the export and and therefor be more advantageous for Canada if the the dollar was slightly weeker, or does that balance out with cheaper importing?

I can never get these things right.

Cheers
Danny

Ps when do you move now?

cneldred

Long run the strong dollar is gonna hurt Canada. They are an exporter of in demand commodities, when they become too expensive for foreign countries to import, then the job crunch will hit Canada. And hard.

Today the move, as per my other thread. 3 hrs sleep in 2 days no good for you, but i am determined to last another couple of hours to beat the jetlag.

Chris

steved61

Goodluck with the move chris see you next month

Steve

Danny B

Things don't look so rosey for Canada in the long term

In this week's update:
Loonie boosted by inflation uptick
- Canadian interest rates unchanged
- Softer inflation in Britain

Having spent the first four days of the week trading between C$1.98 and C$2.00 the Pound dropped sharply on Friday. Later that evening the Pound touched below C$1.9750 before recovering to open in London this morning at C$1.9850.

In a relatively eventful week for the Canadian Dollar the Bank of Canada left its target interest rate unchanged at 4.5 per cent. The BoC said in its report that the risks to inflation are "roughly balanced, with perhaps a small tilt to the downside," (i.e. it leans towards easing.) Oil prices hit $90 a barrel. Canadian inflation - the headline figure at least - was much higher than expected, (i.e. it points away from any quick easing of monetary policy.) To cap it all the Canadian Dollar reached its strongest level for 33 years against the US Dollar (which itself hit a record low against the Euro and a weighted basket of major currencies.)

Among all those it was the CPI inflation figures that caused the most commotion at lunchtime on Friday. In the space of ten minutes the Pound fell two cents and recovered one. Over the next four hours the Pound drifted down as the Loonie strengthened. It ran out of steam at tea time when investors realised that the core inflation figure was much more in line with target and that the BoC would not have hinted at any "tilt to the downside for inflation" without prior knowledge of the inflation data.

In Britain the economy is making things complicated for the Monetary Policy Committee. The two main stories last week concerned inflation and growth, both important to the MPC's decisions. Inflation again remained below its 2 per cent target and it looks as though it will stay down there. On the other hand economic growth speeded up to an annual rate of 3.3 per cent in the third quarter of the year, exceeding estimates. One points to easing, the other does not.

The minutes of the last MPC meeting, published last week, were similarly inconclusive. One member voted for a rate cut, the remaining eight opted to keep rates unchanged. The most recent Reuters poll shows less than a third of economists expecting lower rates on 8 November.

The Canadian Dollar is having a ball at the moment but there are clouds on the horizon. Everybody from G7 to the IMF is warning that the global economy will not just sail blithely through the credit-property-equity storm and out the other side. They warn of a slowdown and investors fear that they are right. Witness the evacuation of equity markets last week: that did not happen because investors were unguardedly optimistic. Slowing economies mean slackening demand for Canada's natural and manufactured products.

The age-old problem is to identify when the turn will come. It has not arrived yet so buyers of the Canadian Dollar should protect themselves by hedging their exposure, buying half of their requirement forward.

SANDRAPAUL

I think I would rather have a boring economy built on boredom and apathy than an economy built of falsehoods.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle2719227.ece

Canada needs a weak $ so it can sell more shit to stupid countries that have to buy the shit cause they ain't got no shit of their own any longer.

Once the India, China and the US likes realise they don't need 'oiled' up 'spivs' in the City mile to work out what a litre of Gas (Petrol) costs the UK won't even be able to use an abacus any more to tell the rest of the globe how to do Math (Maths).

Survival is either having commodities that someone else wants or having so many people who work for next to nothing who can do the job better than the smug idiots sitting in their overpriced accommodations with their plasticised lifestyles dreaming about the day they can retire to the costa del grot and feel proud while insulting the nations that had flushing toilets while those in the UK shit in bushes and wiped their arses with leaves.

Brown is so thick it hurts. But he and TB at least made me and the family realise that there really is life after death (or to be more to the point) life after living with New Labour.

I just want to take out the average Canadian and teach them how to drive.

Jeeeze. Death race 2000+ is the 401!

Someone please teach Canadians that the white line is not meant to be centred under the middle of the vehicle. This is not Scalextric!

Remove womens ability to multi task by doing the hair, speaking on the cellphone, reading a book, having breakfast and checking the lippy - all while doing 80+kms on a 50Km road zone.

weener No 2

Hi

I take it reading through a few of your threads that the CDN isn't going to turn around and start going up again in the near future....

Also, are there signs of the USA house crash crossing the border...or are house priced increasing still in the Ontario region....Cambrideg, Guelph etc?

Howard1944

Canada is the best place to have your money invested right now, the Sub Prime is yet to hit but will not affect Canada to any extent, except we will be able to buy Florida properties a lot cheaper.

High $ affects manafacturing, mainly Ontario, and to some extent Lumber.

Best thing is that Import Prices are coming down, Cars should be getting cheaper, Cross Border Shopping is back.

10% Gold to weather any real storm, GLD/NYSE is a good way to hold it.

I am a Graduate economist, I understand these machinations perfectly, I am not worried about RE but i think Toronto Condos will be cheaper two years from now than they are today.

The U.S. Economy is built on Debt, one big meringue pie that is about to get flatter.

geedee

Howard,

As an economist, how do you see these figures?

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/0...se-prices.html
House prices continued to soar in June, averaging a record $335,180 in sales via multiple listing services operated by real estate boards in 24 major Canadian markets.

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070503/d070503a.htm
The median after-tax income for Canadian families with two or more people rose 1.6% from 2004 to $56,000, after adjusting for inflation.

The above is a family income (I know, 2005!) The average individual salary (for Quebec at least) is, I read somewhere, about 36k (2007)

Based on the ages old "mantra" that 3 to 3.5x single income, or 2.5x joint was a manageable mortgage, isn't Canada in danger of repeating what's happening in the US, and about to happen in the UK? I.e. slight increases in repayment demands are crippling buyers who stretched? The "new" thinking is that with historically low interest rates, we can afford to borrow more.

The "sub-prime" input is to demonstrate that this is not always so.

Do you think that house prices in Canada will escape the general global downturn (by that I mean Europe, USA)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Paul Wildy

I've been giving that question some thought but I cant quite decide.

On the one hand you could argue that they have already demonstrated their ability no to be affected by the house price decline in the US. US prices have been declining throughout 2006 and 2007 so for nearly 2 years already. Yet prices in Canada continue to rise.

On the other hand it is clear that prices in some areas have grown well in excess of growth in income levels and so therefore are suffereing from exactly the same dangerous characteristics as areas of UK and US. There probably should be a correction.

But as Howard says the Canadian economy is strong. We are the second largest exporter of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia and our economy is not founded on debt like the US. In fact there is an annual trade surplus which the government is using to pay national debt down (whereas most other contries are increasing it).

Howard1944

Interest Rates in Canada will stay where they are, or they may go lower, the U.S. Fed will lower their rates, if we don't follow or hold, our $ will continue to appreciate.

Mortgage Rates should stay where they are, I would go for at least a 7 year term, and then try to pay it off as quick as possible, we will see 8% + rates again, inflation will be a future problem.

Prices must come down, the fact is that too many people are crossing the border to buy, either directly or through .com, this will serve as a check on Inflation.

Gold is the Oh Sh^t investment, you hope it does not go to a $1,000 an ounce, which it could, but that would mean that there is serious trouble out there.

Canada is the only country in the world self sufficient for Water, Energy, Food, we can survive as an entity, the Rest of the world needs what we have to supply.

An Inconvenient Truth, a MUST SEE, illustrates why in the long run we will do well.

I like the Pound, would rather hold that than the Euro.

Small Town Real Estate in an area with good local health Care and less than 90 minute drive to major city will prove the best investment in the future, Florida Real Estate will take hit.

Hilary Clinton will NOT get elected.