zlacker

>>eswat+(OP)
It's quite bizarre any jurisdiction would allow someone to buy housing there when they can't legally live in it.

>>causi+N4
Why? Should we restrict other investments with similar logic? For example should non-residents not be allowed to purchase vacation properties and lease them?

The impulse to enlist the government to regulate private property and investments is not productive and results in endless encroachment of individual liberties and rights to governments.

>>alchem+67
Something drastic has to be done about the cost of housing if we're to leave a functional society to the next generation.

>>stormf+88
Blaming foreign investors for a housing crisis is a smokescreen. It's not the demand from investors that's the issue; it's the government's stifling regulations that choke new construction. The mess is because of state failure, not market failure. When sellers freely sell their homes to foreign buyers, they're making choices that benefit them. Why should we deny them that right? The real absurdity is ignoring the elephant in the room: a bureaucratic quagmire that prevents building enough homes to meet demand. Instead of scapegoating investors, slash the red tape and let the market work.

>>alchem+jb
Yup.

The Power of Pricing is a thing that exists whether you want it to or not. Smart policy uses it to great advantage. Dumb policy redirects this to hurt those it intends to help. Rent control, restrictions on production, byzantine zoning and construction rules... all contribute to distorting the market in ways that push back on the original (or at least, stated) intentions.

You want housing to be cheaper? Increase supply. That's it. You don't want foreign investment in your properties? Don't make them so damn attractive as pure investment vehicles. How? Increase supply.

There's always a boogeyman to be blamed when markets are so broken like this.

>>functi+ff
China doesn’t allow non-residents to buy property at all. You have to be working in the city you want to buy in for a few years with documentation if you don’t have hukou there.

Maybe the USA and Canada could do something similar? I find it ironic that it’s primarily Chinese investors who want us to keep our property markets open.