• argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It hasn’t had much of an effect on housing costs because it’s too late. Claw back all the housing they bought up, sell it off to citizens at reasonable prices, and then you’ll see an effect on housing costs.

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Foreign owners only account for a small share of the Canadian real estate market. According to Statistics Canada, a government website, non-residents owned 2.2 percent of residential properties in Ontario and 3.1 percent in British Columbia in 2020. The percentages were 2.7 and 4.2 in the Toronto and Vancouver metropolitan areas, respectively.

      https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/6/why-is-canada-banning-foreign-homebuyers

      I’m not personally convinced that freeing up maybe 3% of the housing stock (large amounts of which are probably rented) would have a significant effect on the housing market. Maybe, just maybe, there’s been a chronic lack of new supply for decades?

      Nah, I’m sure it’s just those dastardly Chinese.

      • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Maybe, just maybe, there’s been a chronic lack of new supply for decades?

        Then why is this only now, only abruptly, becoming a problem?