1003 replies to this topic

[Citified.ca]

Stats Can report on rates of foreign participation in the real-estate markets of BC, Nova Scotia and Ontario: https://www150.statc...190312a-eng.htm

 

[Edited by admin]

[Nparker]

So does Nova Scotia have an affordable housing crisis?

[Mike K.]

It has some of the most affordable real-estate in all of Canada.

 

Makes you wonder if the foreign ownership issue ...is the issue ...or whether an overall lack of housing ...is the issue?

[RFS]

Maybe the nature of the foreign ownership matters? Are the foreign owners in Nova Scotia Lamborghini drivers from Hong Kong with virtually bottomless pockets for whom the difference between paying $1m and $4m for a tear down in Vancouver means nothing?

[Victoria Watcher]

i suspect most of the foreign buyers in nova scotia are fairly wealthy americans.

[RFS]

i suspect most of the foreign buyers in nova scotia are fairly wealthy americans.

 

That would be my guess as well.  Probably recreational properties for fishing etc.  Big difference. 

Edited by RFS, 13 March 2019 - 08:55 AM.

[LeoVictoria]

Foreign ownership rate (combined partial and wholly) is 6.2% in BC and in Nova Scotia, not 10%/10.1% as in article.   

 

And if you look at the cities which is what actually matters:

Vancouver: 7.6%

Victoria:  5.2%

Halifax: 4.3%

 

There is zero doubt that demand from foreign ownership is part of the reason behind high housing prices.  It's obviously not the only factor, and just because it is a factor doesn't mean it is a problem per se, but let's not pretend more pure demand from out of town buyers doesn't drive up house prices.

Edited by LeoVictoria, 13 March 2019 - 10:47 AM.

[Mike K.]

Yes, you're correct! My bad.

[VIResident]

From Victoria Real Estate

March 19, 2019 

The Speculation and Vacancy Tax – What the government isn’t saying

https://www.victoria...s_TkxmFeQQjCtvE

 

....."Firstly, who rents a residential property for just six months? Most renters want a place to live for the indefinite future, which is usually measured in years, not months.

Secondly, even if you can find someone who agrees to rent for six months, recent changes to the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) have now made a term lease very difficult to terminate. The amendments to the RTA prohibit landlords from ending fixed term tenancy agreements when they expire except in very limited circumstances. Therefore, your tenant is under no legal obligation to vacate the premises at the end of the fixed term!"

 

"...However, if the owner is a foreign owner then the tenant must meet other requirements for the owner to be exempt. The tenant must:

– Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident;
– Be a resident of B.C. for income tax purposes at the end of the last day of the calendar year;
– Not be a member of a satellite family; and
– Have a B.C. income for the calendar year that is equal to or greater than three times the annual fair market rent for the entire residential property.
You may be wondering why the government cares about how much income the tenant is earning? That is a good question. This tax is supposed to be targeting vacant homes, so if there is someone occupying the property why does it matter how much income the tenant is earning?

Furthermore, even if the tenant is non-arm’s length how are landlords going to get their tenants to disclose their annual income? Clearly the government did not think about how this act would interact with privacy legislation.

 

(This sorry tale goes on a bit more - it's an interesting read, causes one to pause.)

[spanky123]

Foreign ownership rate (combined partial and wholly) is 6.2% in BC and in Nova Scotia, not 10%/10.1% as in article.   

 

And if you look at the cities which is what actually matters:

Vancouver: 7.6%

Victoria:  5.2%

Halifax: 4.3%

 

There is zero doubt that demand from foreign ownership is part of the reason behind high housing prices.  It's obviously not the only factor, and just because it is a factor doesn't mean it is a problem per se, but let's not pretend more pure demand from out of town buyers doesn't drive up house prices.

 

What was foreign ownership 10 years ago?! My bet is that it was the same or higher which dispels the myth that it is the cause of the increase in housing prices over the past few years.

[Victoria Watcher]

the best thing we could do leo is meet that demand with supply. nothing the government - at every level - ever does tries to increase supply. even though increasing supply has a massive economic and employment benefit too.

[LeoVictoria]

What was foreign ownership 10 years ago?! My bet is that it was the same or higher which dispels the myth that it is the cause of the increase in housing prices over the past few years.

That’s the problem with not having data, all you can do is bet.
By the way I agree that Victoria foreign ownership rate is probably similar to 10 years ago. One of the bigger recent impacts on Victoria is spillover from Vancouver. Prices got driven up there and lots of Vancouver locals came over here

[LeoVictoria]

the best thing we could do leo is meet that demand with supply. nothing the government - at every level - ever does tries to increase supply. even though increasing supply has a massive economic and employment benefit too.

Construction at all time high, rental construction at 10 times the level of long run average.
I wouldn’t say supply is not happening.

[Mike K.]

It may be happening but it’s quenching 30 years of under building.

[LeoVictoria]

It may be happening but it’s quenching 30 years of under building.

Did you see the update on the federal rental construction money? Started in 2017 and their update was they had 500 units announced to date nationwide. Laughable.

[lanforod]

The biggest changes needed to increase supply are local IMO. Cut that red tape, make the process much faster. Do some blanket rezoning, lower onerous requirements, streamlime the whole review process and cap the time it takes. Allow fee simple townhomes.
Some provincial issues are ALR and the stupid builder exam.

[Awaiting Juno]

This thing is super easy to declare, if the circumstance is straightforward.  Here's a not so straight forward circumstance - my DH is the executor for his dead grandma's estate.  He took over when his dad died in 2009.  Grandma - well, she's been dead since 2005.  So why is the estate still being administered?  Because his aunt has a life interest in the estate.  That means his aunt gets to occupy to property for as long as she lives - it also means that he must complete the declaration (or delegate doing so).  So we try doing just that, online, and all is going swimmingly until, what is the deceased's SIN? The woman has been dead 15 years, her tax info shredded after 7.  Now we're at an hour and 20 and counting on their info line to do what we must, or have the estate charged this tax.  

 

Negative billing - we don't let cable companies do it, so why are we giving the government a free pass to do so?

[Victoria Watcher]

Negative billing - we don't let cable companies do it, so why are we giving the government a free pass to do so?

 

we've always allowed reverse onus on tax matters.

[spanky123]

That’s the problem with not having data, all you can do is bet.
By the way I agree that Victoria foreign ownership rate is probably similar to 10 years ago. One of the bigger recent impacts on Victoria is spillover from Vancouver. Prices got driven up there and lots of Vancouver locals came over here

 The dollar has also dropped 30%+ in the past decade.

[Nparker]

This thing is super easy to declare, if the circumstance is straightforward...

And if this useless tax had to be implemented, the logical means of collecting the information would have been a minor modification to the HOG application. There was no need to re-invent the wheel.