Thursday, November 17, 2011

Restricting Off-shore ownership picking up steam..

Big piece on CBC BC News about the up-coming civic election and calls for restricting RE ownership by off-shore investors.

An astounding number was revealed. I cannot unfortunately find a link yet (doesn't seem to be up)

74% of recent buyers of Richmond and Vancouver RE are thought to be from Mainland China according to Landcor. Money escaping possible future restrictions.

One listing 'boasted' that it had never been lived in and it's ten year old appliances were never used.

In my building we have absentee owners from Korea, China, Taiwan, Russia, Israel and Dubia. Some units are rented and others are left permanently empty- though there is someone who comes round to pick up the mail and pay bills on the empty ones.

How did we get into such a mess? Lax rules for one. even Australia has restrictions on off-shore ownership, even China does, but we don't. Why not?

The only people to bring it up was Peter Ladner, after he left office, and a solitary councillor who says 'we should look at the matter'.

Too late!

And I doubt one solitary Vancouver councillor can do much. The Australian rules came form their Federal government, not from one city councillor, however well intentioned. Can you imagine our own Premier and Prime Minster making such a pronouncement.

Lets start with punitive taxes on any house not occupied for 6 months a year. We have a city that is unaffordable for those who work here and make it liveable for the parvenues, and keeps the city safe and sound for their investments.

The piece on the CBC ended with a Chinese candidate in Richmond saying how Chinese investors should be directed to investing in businesses instead of RE. Quite right.

7 comments:

  1. It is too late.

    They should have done this two years or more ago, not wait until now to just debate it.

    Soon the world will be in another recession and we will be begging for Chinese money.

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  2. Barn door. Horses gone.

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  3. Wait! One thing urks the living sh*t out of me... it's telling this to stubborn out-of-town bloggers like Garth and Ben over at Economics Whatever who constantly deny the reality of HAM money until three years later when Landcor captures the data and the damage is done.

    Go to a condo pre-sale. Condos are being collected like roulette chips. New condos sell out within a day while real resale condos sit and sit. Then the building gets built, the neigbhourhoood is overcrowed by towers, yet half the units are waiting for a now 5-yr old to attend UBC in 15 years.

    I'm making one vote in this year's mayoral race and that's for Sandy Garrosino. (And maybe another one for Tim Louis... because Tim Louis is like a dead fly floating in a cold cup of coffee... he's that irritating to all the other councillors and is a guarantee they won't enjoy their 3-year stint at the trough).

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  4. "stubborn out-of-town bloggers" ha!
    Even the most eloquent and intelligent bear Freakie/Patrioz has relocated. Peace V!

    The establishment sounds like an old broken down record, but hey it works. Greenspan: "I don't see it coming." Canada promised: "No recession here and inflation is low." And Obama / BoC distracted their fans: "Watch out for high interest rates descending ... (that never will long after they win the next elections)"

    So here is another broken record to keep you entertained since no one wants you to know the truth ... at least to keep the left hand from knowing what the right hand knows.

    http://tinyurl.com/7ys9cw7
    http://tinyurl.com/7ycn47a

    http://tinyurl.com/7fxzebv
    http://tinyurl.com/7xoqq67

    @egghead, you're so right. "horses gone" at least going .. until the hoarders have unloaded their wares, pocketed their profits and remitted the laundered cash back to country of origin.

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  5. So Patriotz is Freako? I thought so. And he's moved?

    What a depressing end to it all.

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  6. "So Patriotz is Freako"

    Doubt it. patriotz uses italics freako used boldface. Writing style is too consistently different.

    My long-tail bet: freako will be back when TSHTF to mercilessly destroy all RE pumpers.

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  7. Italics. Bold face. Gimme a break. If you're changing personas, you're changing personas.

    ReplyDelete