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Comment by krageon | Hacker News Reader

It's not about the "economy", it's about people being able to buy a roof over their head. Foreign investors simply don't belong in that space at all.

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Exactly, and I honestly wish there were measures to fine owners that have empty homes as well. Many people would disagree with me, but to me it's not about economics. We need a way to fight the idea of hoarding homes, a basic human right, as being an "investment".

If there was enough supply there wouldn't be a problem. No one hoards cars, boats, airplanes or anything else because they think that they can corner the market and raise prices. Housing is only special because not enough is built. It's only possible to "hoard" because every 1 off the market is less for everyone else. A fixed pie. Like bitcoin. If the bitcoin supply was infinite no one would think about collecting them.

It's easier and cheaper to produce more cars. Boats are irrelevant since they're not a necessity, a house is, a car is in certain cities.houses being already scarce, and hoarding them makes it worse, because it makes them even less affordable.

You can't have enough supply of housing, because for housing location matters a lot.

There's only so much room in the center of the capital, and making more costs a titanic amount of effort. Even that runs out eventually, as you can only build so high.

Otherwise, why would we be having a problem? Move to Serbia and buy an apartment for $40K.

Serious question, what should I consider before moving to Serbia and buying an apartment for $40k?

Generally location, services and availability of work... Might even have services, but no work... That is for Finland. Like I see 32k€ for 3 bedroom house, with relatively big plot. 2km from "town" center... What explains it is area losing population.

Well, just a few things that come to mind:

* Speaking the language -- in some places they don't speak much English, and certainly don't do official paperwork in it.

* Local laws

* Safety

* How much stuff you need is going to be nearby

* Internet access

* Local culture

* Employment

* Friends and family

Like, I don't know much about Serbia (just looked up where housing is cheap), but from what I hear I could get a pretty good deal if I moved to Russia -- they're desperate for tech workers and offering some very good perks regarding mortgages and so on. But on the other hand, is living in Russia that good of a deal right now? I don't think so.

They've got a bad government, slow and very restricted internet access, a not terribly pleasant society overall in my impression, and the economy is circling the drain due to all the sanctions.

some nitpicking: internet in Russia is very fast and stable. But you are right when you say "restricted". The retarded government tries to ban some websites.

How fast of a connection can you get?

I'm on 1Gbps fiber, and can get 10G/10G fiber for cheap at my home right now, and just finished with the preparations.

My internet provider provides bandwidth up to 800 Mbit, I use the 200 Mbit package

Until Canadian city centres look like Singapore, I don't think you can claim that you can't build more.

Houses are non-fungible, making the whole comparison absurd. They occupy 3D space in a fixed location.

Until we develop Star Trek teleportation I cannot replace my apartment with a cheaper one 1000km away.

That's why hoarding real estate is exploitation of people's basic needs.

In Norway a kommune (local authority) can institute a boplikt, a duty of residence. This means that if you purchase a house in that area it must become your principal residence.

So it's not at all possible to rent a home in these places?

Yes it is possible. But the house is then treated as a business asset which is different from a second home. I don't know the details.

Look into land value taxes.

I would advise against specifically fining empty homes, because then you have to define what an empty home is; and that will have lots of weird grey areas.

That being said: fining/taxing is still better than banning.

> Foreign investors simply don't belong in that space at all.

How much is this a problem?

Further, this does not (IIRC) apply to folks to have permanent residence status or folks here on things like student visas.

So how many never-set-foot-in-Canada people are buying properties?

I would not try to immigrate into a country in which I don't have a place to live, so this essentially is an anti-immigration, "Canada for the Canadians, Foreigners out" policy in my book.

Is it really? I would imagine that many immigrants don't buy homes outright before immigrating. Most immigrants I know rent out the first few years and start saving.

Not being able to buy a place to live ≠ not having a place to live.

Plenty of Canadian-born people rent.

Years ago, before BC brought in it's foreign buyer tax it was a problem. Local builders were literally opening up sales offices in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other major cities in Asia.

We know it was a significant issue because the government actually shared the data, and it showed some alarming trends.

What is remarkable here in contrast is that the Federal government hasn't shared any data at all. (Ironically when they were elected in 2015 they promised "evidence based decision making" ..haha)

"People being able to buy a roof over their head" is the economics of housing

Foreigners are people to.

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