This seems to focus on condo builds, which are often sold to investors and speculators. The article mentions that builders can pivot to rentals. It also mentions builders need financing, which should be available from our new housing-friendly CMHC ~~replacement~~ flanker, right?
Trolling aside, it'll be interesting to see how the various levels of government react. Commentators have been saying that prices in Vancouver are pushed by foreign investment (and a hint of money laundering), so this shouldn't be a surprise.
Major players in B.C.’s housing industry are calling on federal and provincial governments to loosen restrictions on foreign investment in Canadian homes to avoid a crash they say will deepen the country’s housing crisis.
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The letter, signed by companies such as Beedie Living, Westbank, Amacon, Cressey and Polygon, argues that having some level of foreign investment to provide the capital for the early stages of condo projects is key.
“New condo development requires presales to meet financing thresholds, part of which relies on investor-focused buyers. Closer to occupancy, sales typically shift more toward owner-occupiers.
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But Hani Lammam, executive vice-president at the long-time Vancouver building company Cressey Development Group, said residential construction in major cities in Canada can’t function without the ability to get capital from somewhere besides Canadian citizens, companies or pension funds.
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The downturn is worse than what the industry experienced in 2008 during the global financial crisis, when construction activity plummeted. Several developers turned to rental at that point and presale condo projects slowed down briefly but recovered within a year, in part because of the foreign capital that was still pouring into the city.
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Although foreign investors represent a small proportion of Canadian homeowners – Statistics Canada estimates have pegged it at between 2 per cent and 6 per cent – they can have an outsize impact when all their investing is done in a few targeted neighbourhoods.
Is this getting downvoted because c/canada doesn't like what the developers are asking for? Or is it something else?
I can't speak for others, but I upvoted based on this being meaningful content that we all need to see. I'd downvote the rich as jerks who are pushing for sucking more money out of Canada's economy for their personal edification, though, and maybe that's what the downvotes really are, but you know how it is on Lemmy, or Reddit, for that matter. If it's not a bot or sock puppet operated by some group or another acting to 'shape discourse', it's some braindead idiot who has been caught up in those groups. Hopefully actual thinkers will be around soon enough to upvote you out of the negatives. And if not, just shrug. You're not deep in the negatives, and you aren't doing anything wrong highlighting this nonsense.
Yeah, I'm mostly joking with the comment. It is frustrating to try and format a good post only to get downvotes from people who don't like downvotes without comments. But it's positive once more and there are a couple of comments, so I feel better.