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Empty Homes in Vancouver: should we have restrictions on foreign investors?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by milquetoast, Sep 23, 2014.

  1. milquetoast

    milquetoast Senior Member

  2. Vivek Golikeri

    Vivek Golikeri Active Member

    Yes. Every country should take care of its own citizens and pre-citizens ( meaning landed immigrants in Canada's case) first. Foreign investors are okay but to a point, Yet from what I hear, Chinese and other buyers have been making the cost of property in Vancouver obscenely high. In the past Asians were very badly treated, and I too feel the bitterness. But the current generation of whites should not be penalized. By all means let in a reasonable number of immigrants or foreign businesses, but only in ways that do not disrupt Canada.
     
  3. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... news flash for vancouver: there already ARE penalties against owners who don't reside in their homes. residents get discounts on their annual property tax as opposed to non-residents who don't ...
     
    Stuntman and milquetoast like this.
  4. milquetoast

    milquetoast Senior Member

    @the mechanic thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that. Looks like it's a provincial program that's administered by the municipalities. Although, I imagine it would be quite easy to lie about a property being your principal residence. I'm sure they're audited but people will always cheat the system if it's easy to do so.

    Looks like the province has restricted the Home Owner Grant this year so less people qualify. A lot of homes in Vancouver would not qualify for the basic grant since they're assessed value is over $1.2 million due to the overpriced market. This makes the grant a bit useless to residents in my opinion.

    Realistically, the discount on property tax is probably too small for a foreign investor to care anyway.

     
    Stuntman likes this.
  5. ema

    ema Full Member

    What milquetoast said. The government has assessed most Vancouver homes past the $1.2 million, so no one really qualifies for this so-called "discount"….most Vancouver homes are at least $1.4 million now.

    I do agree that we should probably up the taxes for non-Canadian permanent residents/citizenship, but I don't agree with the objective of the blog linked above.
     
  6. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... cites are bankrupt, the city of vancouver is no exception. thus they're looking for cash. don't believe any of the so-called reasoning the politicians put forth for squeezing the wealthy. there is no logical reason for penalizing foreigners. it's all about greed and lust for money and nothing more ...
     
  7. Walker

    Walker Guest

    Foreign buyers should be paying a 25% surcharge. The home owner grant doesn't even factor into it. They don't care. It's all about getting money out of China or wherever into Canada. And because our cities are cash strapped we're just happy collecting the sales tax and don't care how the money was made.
     
  8. Vivek Golikeri

    Vivek Golikeri Active Member

    The difference between coming to Canada or America as a regular immigrant and these legal but objectionable practices is like the difference between marrying into an extended family and messing with another man's wife. I came to America lawfully and learned American ways. I fit in. I took citizenship and swore allegiance. I paid taxes,vote, and have been summoned to jury duty.

    Absentee landlord residing in foreign lands buying up chunks of the country are not throwing in their lot with the country. They are just using it.
     
  9. Singapore has placed a “stamp tax” on foreign buyers. Australia permits foreigners to buy only new housing, requires temporary residents to sell propeties when they leave, and will help China seize assets from corrupt Chinese officials. British politicians are proposing a levy on overseas buyers who leave their properties empty. Canada? Nothing.

    The Washington-based Global Financial Integrity group, which analyses illicit financial flows, estimates that $1.08 trillion illegally flowed out of China from 2002 to 2011. The United States, Canada and Australia are the three most popular destinations for suspected Chinese economic criminals, Chinese state media have said.
     

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