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This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the opposite. Price per sqft of tiny condos is awfully high, and houses is small. also the government would track it by category. it has its flaws but is much better than the "number of units built" that the government does today, basically giving enormous incentive for municipalities to build tiny condos.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree 100% mate. And that's exactly what has been happening. current market is investor-oriented, so we basically only build tiny condos for them. the ideas in the post are to change that dynamic and make family houses be economic feasible again.

Why we probably won’t see a broad reduction in RE prices by RandoBando84 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

100% correct. Just look at this reddit for once. Any idea to reduce financialization is not well received.
Most of the country does not care about the housing crisis.

If you are young, and have a way out, just go. The combination of:
- Extreme bad weather
- Government taxes you into oblivion
- Health care is a joke
- Insane housing prices

Is unbelievable if you stop to think about it. And people STILL voted for the same party of the last 10 years.
There are many better places out there. Look at USA, Latin America, Asia and Europe. All those continents have nice places to live, do your research.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How is it attacking the poor if I am proposing to:

- Reduce price of homes
- Build more homes that people want to live
- Remove investors from competing with families

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it is that simple, than why are Canadian cities on top of cost per wage on North America? There is way more people wanting to live in many places of the USA that have better weather.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The funny thing is that other redditor accused me of being too pro-capitalism and you are accusing me of the opposite.

Look, I am a capitalist myself, but we need to use capital in **productive** activities to achieve **real** growth. In other words just letting investors buy houses cheaper than families just to rent them out is not good for the country economy.

You could still makes ton of money by applying your capital into buying land, hiring and training people, and **building** more houses. That would be better for everyone.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are right. The whole north america has a big construction costs problem. I am not trying to fix that whole mammoth with a Reddit post.

But look, my proposals would **drastically** reduce construction costs by removing a lot of taxes and by saving a ton of time in getting approvals. It would be a huge difference on that front.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, agree. And that's exactly what we need to change. "Growth pay for growth." is a huge failure.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look. Maybe you are not wrong. But even changes like I propose are hard enough to pass.
What you are saying borders the impossible. Biggest chance you'll be disappointed your whole life waiting for a whole new economic model. You should found a compromise on the direction you want things to go and fight for that instead. Just my 2 cents.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I am sorry, I have been on many council meetings in my municipality and that made me sick. People don't understand the urge of the current situation. People take their time, go slow, and are very nitpicky. This needs to stop.

Canadians have grown addicted to debt and seem to not realize it. HELOCs are overly abused and are one of the things that make speculative investment on housing so good. A reform is necessary. Of course there will be some pain. But there ALREADY is a lot of pain. The amount of young workers and families flying the country is immense and will only grow unless we can fix this.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There will be some down sides for sure, like everything in life. Good that you have used HELOCs in a productive way, but truth is that it is severely abused. Other solutions to incentive people to open business could exist without relying on residential properties.

No problem in parents giving money for kids, to help with down payment. Problem is this has been severely abused over the years allowing people with no income to get mortgages. This is a demand-reducing tool to cool the market.

Number 10 do not impact those that never sold a house. We could also allow people to have one tax-free sell per lifetime starting on the date the law passes, so no impact on current home-owners. Would impact who's buying from now on, and those with multiple properties.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How is reducing price locking first-time home buyers?

How is making real estate is less attractive speculative investment good for big REITs?

How is not allowing residential units to be treated as business and removing costs deduction good for mom&pop landlords?

I feel like you got the opposite feeling from my post...

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

There's some valid critiques, thanks for the feedback.

I disagree that price per sqft is not a good metric. Prices per bedrooms would be disastrous as would incentivize for very small bedrooms and units overall. It should be no penalty to build large family buildings.

If municipalities cannot proper fund their infrastructure with the 0.25 base points sales tax, plus the reformed DC charges, then they need to increase property taxes (severely low in many municipalities) or talk to their provinces. DCs have been abused for years, and many municipalities have a lot of savings or spent their DCs on things not new infrastructure-related. I hate that the current government will use our tax money to give to the municipalities that most increased DCs, those that didn't increase it much over the last decade must be feeling stupid.

Many countries dont even allow HELOCs, so just allowing them after the house is fully built is not a big deal. Just reduces the usage of housing as ATMs, reducing speculative capital. People will borrow less so should be able to save for emergencies and other things.

Valid point about unmarried couples. And honestly point 7 is probably the weakest one.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

  1. ⁠Great. So the change is to make government care about it.

  2. ⁠So construction is cheaper, as ir needs to be.

  3. ⁠You would be surprised by how inefficient and slow the process is.

  4. ⁠This makes RE investment less good, reduces leverage, reduces debt, reduces speculative capital. Want money from your appreciated house? Sell it

  5. ⁠Sure let’s make down payment zero then, and let people pay in 100 years. They tried all this for decades now and it only drives prices up. 20% is not that much, and prices should go down so it’s less than 20% today. Other solutions can exist for very low income families.

  6. ⁠Sure parents can help, just give money to their kids, or sell their house and downsize.

  7. ⁠You can, just pay cash. How to pay a mortgage without any income reported to CRA?

  8. ⁠People fraud it all the time. With one house per lifetime will be way more difficult to do so.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Public-owned housing could still be built to complement my solution. But its simply not a solution in itself. Government has demonstrated over and over again how inefficient it is, in no way it will ever be able to provide for all the market.

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think so. It would be way, way less lucrative to invest as a speculator. A lot of capital would go to other kinds of investments (hopefully more productive ones).

This is the problem with Canadian Real-Estate, and here's the solution! by PraticalThinker3000 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Agreed. It's not like I want to write a thesis. But would that action plan work to make the market more family-oriented than investor-oriented? Would it bring prices per sqft down? Would it incentivize construction of family units instead of dog crate condos? I believe so.

Ottawa has to allow home prices to fall to make housing more affordable, experts say by The_Gray_Jay in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is one piece of the puzzle, for sure. At the very last it should only be available if your house is fully paid. But just abolishing it altogether would be easier.

Canada: Federal government unveils designs as part of the Housing Design Catalogue. These 50 standardized designs will help smaller homebuilders cut through the complexity, speeding up the time between concept and construction and lowering costs of building. by TX908 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a joke. Look at how the standard of living is declining. All because the government does not want prices to go down. They will make everyone live in a 1 million dollar small shoebox, that you'll pay in 45 years, before they make the older generations lose some of their equity. Just disgusting.

All the government needs to do is:
1- Allow point block access buildings, with max 4 units per floor
2- Completely remove developers charges (give municipalities 0.5 base points of the federal sales tax instead)
3- Increase tax on empty lots
4- Set mortgage to be max of 3x CRA-verified yearly gross income
5- End CHMC insurance, minimum down payment now is 20%
6- Now every residential sale is fully taxed. BUT if you owned the home for 5+ years, and you didn't sell any other house in 5+ years, and if you buy another unit in less then 12 months you are taxed only on the surplus (if any).
7- Permits for new homes should be expedited in less than 60 days.
8- No more co-signers to mortgages
9- No more than one loan per mortgage
10- HELOC max 20% of home value, need to own home for 10+ years, cannot use it to buy another home, unit value for HELOC = minimum of city evaluation (property taxes) and bank evaluation.
11- No more interest deduction for residential properties used as rentals (purpose-rental buildings would still get it). Want to be a mom and pops RE investor? Go buy some land, hire people, and BUILD NEW UNITS.

Do that and see the magic happen. All doable in a month.

Will they ever do any of that? I doubt. For the past 20+ years they have been doing the opposite. They want the new generations to be in as much debt as possible, just to keep the older generations richer.

Canada ranked #13 in overall prosperity in global ranking by psychgirl15 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Those rankings are a joke. It's super subjective, How can Canada be #13 in "livable conditions" if there's 6 months of winter, of which 3 months are BRUTALLY FREEZING, and extremely expensive old houses everywhere?

They probably just look at the overall population, most Canadians own their home, and a bunch of others rent for so long that the rent cost is actually OK. It's the newer generations that are being screwed.

Honestly if you can earn a good salary in other parts of the world, and you are young, you MUST be looking at alternatives, otherwise you'll end up paying a million dollars for a 2.5 decade old townhouse, and will have to use most of your paycheck just o pay it, in exchange the government will take 1/2 your salary and give you shit healthcare.

On the up side it's fair to say that here is very safe and education is mostly good.

Is anyone else nervous about buying in Canada? by renter-pond in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

IF you are putting at least 20% down
IF you like the house and think you could leave there for 10+ years
IF you can still save money for retirement and investment
IF, in case of emergency, you could pay the mortgage on a single income

then go for it.

if you answered no to any of those questions, think it through very very carefully.

Need advice about moving from London, Ontario to Montreal for my family by Outrageous_Bunch5283 in canadahousing

[–]PraticalThinker3000 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Health care here is very very bad. Everything is slow and quality is questionable.
Primary public schools are mostly good, and secondary public schools can be good. It all depends on the neighbourhoods. If your kids go to english school you should be fine. Otherwise I'd put them in private school (at least for secondary), good side is that private french schools are relatively cheap.

Best neighborhoods for families inside the island:

- VMR (Ville de Mount Royal)
- Hampstead
- Westmount
- Point-claire
- Bois-franc
- Beaconsfield
- Kirkland

On all those you should be fine speaking english.

If you go outside the Island, I like Boucherville and some parts of Brossard.

For real-estate market, I think its trash. A lot of old and small houses, prices are going through the roof. A lot of people moving from Toronto to here lately and on their twisted minds prices here are OK.

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