Hacker News Reader

Comment by msie | Hacker News Reader

"Lisa Sun paces around the Vancouver mansion she’s been hired to sell by its wealthy Chinese-Canadian owner. The family’s had it with the new taxes and what it sees as increasing hostility to Asian capital."

Hostility that is fueled by reporting by Bloomberg and others.

View on HN

Its not hostility to asian capital. Its hostility to capital outside of the region. The primary reason people bought homes and chose to not live in them was that they were a good investment. That comes at the cost of building a community, and drives up prices for people who actually live in the area, often with no other benefits.

Its not hostility, and Its not racist to call a spade a spade.

You could call it hostility to Asian capital, but it shouldn't be confused with hostility to Asian people. Some Western governments have done a pretty poor job of preventing their real estate stock from being exploited by foreign investors. Rising real estate prices due to capital flight goes hand in hand with rising property tax revenue available to local government, so it's not necessarily a problem they were in a rush to solve...

Thanks to Québec's "money for citizenship scheme" called QIIP which has a part in this BC housing bubble.

The Canadian federal government ended its similar program in 2014. According to an unsourced report in https://www.immigration.ca/how-ottawa-halt-thousands-quebec-..., 50k of the 60k residents admitted under QIIP have moved to Vancouver or Toronto.

Because Québec has full autonomy in cherry picking its immigrants, the QIIP money for citizenship scheme is alive and kicking. The federal govt. cannot do anything to stop this according to the Canada Québec Accord.

https://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/immigrate-settl...

It's also a way to deflate a bubble before it reaches its tipping point. Vancouver homes being a good investment, outside of some actual economic activity bringing more money into the region, was just a self-perpetuating cycle. When it would have popped/when it pops, it will screw over many local homeowners too who were unfortunate enough to buy at a price that would then put them underwater

You can't deny the racism. That taints everything. Read online comments on any article about Vancouver real estate, tune in to talk shows, listen to the man on the street. Asians driving luxury vehicles get dirty looks. Controversy over Chinese language signs. Panic over birth tourism. Panic over money-laundering by Chinese gamblers. Panic over the idea of luxury car garages. There is hostility even when the homes are not empty - outrage that an Asian college student could afford a mansion.

No doubt there is profound racism that the housing issue is bundled with. Does that mean there isn't a problem stemming from high amounts of foreign capital of any source?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com