BristolUK

I'm going to steal a line from the excellent movie "Big" and ask which of you prefers to be on top.

scrubbedexpat091

paw339

Just because you make a capital loss doesn't mean you can increase the rent to cover the loss. Your rents would have to compete against new landlords who were able to buy cheaply. You certainly don't hear about landlords reducing the rent because they've made so much money on capital gains :-)

Aviator

I am not sure the point in further debate, the market is where it is and unlikely to change.

dbd33

I think house prices will drop. Not over the next 20 years but over the next 5, such cycles are typical of the housing market. I think the next drop will be precipitated by a prolonged slump in oil prices and a rise in interest rates. I don't think this will improve the lot of the poor but, as usual, will hurt highly leveraged home owners. High levels of immigration help, of course, but they'll be offset by the tar sands workers going home.

paw339

I'm hoping for a change in the market at least for my children's state. Things certainly down seem sustainable on the current path especially as median real wages don't seem to be going higher anytime soon and TPP will only make things worse, but thats a discussion for another thread :-)

MarkG

Your kids won't need a house. They'll just live in a pod, and their Virtual Reality goggles will make it look like a mansion.

Shard

Now there's a thought

Shakyuk

I've read articles recently about Sydney, Vancouver and London and the influx of Russian, Arab and Chinese buyers. Rich people from these nations are entering the market and buying up large quantities of houses in all of the above cities. I think this is causing a huge problem, I know for sure it is in London as I have friends living there who have spoken about the ridiculous number of properties that are bought and left empty.

I think this is particularly unfair because the nations these people obtained there wealthy are famously unfair in terms of wealth distribution. They make the west look like a wealth equality utopia. So we have people entering the market who have amassed such wealth on the backs of the poor in their own countries and they're using this vast wealth to negatively affect western cities and their populations.

The governments of all three nations don't appear to be taking any steps to curb this. If they're meant to be representatives of the people then they should prevent people who do not have citizenship in the respective countries from buying land or property in areas which are clearly only being bought for money laundering or investment purposes.

I don't think there is a democracy in the world which put their people before corporations and money.

Shard

That's a really interesting point. The Panama Papers have highlighted how endemic corruption is in some other countries, not that we didn't suspect it, and certainly some of the money coming in are ill gotten gains. The cities you mention are to some extent allowing their property markets to be money laundering systems. A problem in itself, but when it impacts the ability of local residents to purchase, quite a critical problem. Greater transparency is essential, followed, in necessary, by specific regulation.

scrubbedexpat091

A sibling going behind another siblings back and having the parent sell the parents house to one sibling and then lie about it to the other sibling.

Explains how the other sibling bought 24 acres of ocean front property.

Real Estate seems to make people quite money hungry and greedy sometimes, amazing how people will back stab family members.

scrubbedexpat091

Gov't should also strive to track with accuracy how many units are vacant and just sitting empty.

Maybe its time to bring in a hefty vacant residential property permit? (If it doesn't already exist.)

Charge a non-resident tax?

Suppose the only way is to make it unattractive to park money in real estate somehow.

snoopdawg

Then who would you rent from??!
There are plenty of Canadians buying property for investment as well, I would imagine almost all of of it is rented out.

scrubbedexpat091

I was reffering to off shore investors who buy property to park their money and then leave the units empty or rent them nightly on air bnb like they are a hotel.

snoopdawg

Its hard to make a rule which is so precise- would you ban Americans from investing? Would Canadians then be affected in a tit for tat arrangement if they wanted to buy in the USA- many have homes they live in only during the winter.
Having empty housing stock is less than ideal but I can also see that legislating to prevent it would also be difficult.
Renting out to tourists is easier to control- I believe NYC is very strict about this. I think only longer term rentals are allowed but I may be wrong