People buy houses in family members names to avoid foreign buyers taxes and taxes in general to allow people to claim the home as their primary residence. Many want to obscure who the “true” owners are. Most foreign investors are from countries where they aren’t going to have to declare capital gains. If anything most foreign investor just sit on real estate in Canada. They treat it like a safety deposit box.
Housing crisis in Canada
- Thread starter ZZDown
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People buy houses in family members names to avoid foreign buyers taxes and taxes in general to allow people to claim the home as their primary residence. Many want to obscure who the “true” owners are. Most foreign investors are from countries where they aren’t going to have to declare capital gains. If anything most foreign investor just sit on real estate in Canada. They treat it like a safety deposit box.
Just as the way that many Canadians parents put themselves in debt to help their adult children to buy their own homes. As for obscure who the "true" owners, in BC, they have to make a declaration every year. Fail to do so, they would have to pay money to the provincial government and/or municipal government (both in the city of Vancouver). Furthermore, without filing a tax return, wouldn't the portion of their gross sales be withhold by the federal government indefinitely? Safe deposit box with a hefty fee.
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Vancouver is not all of Canada where there is no current property registry. Apparently the rest of the provinces are in the process of setting up registries but it could be many years. Still lots of people in BC registering properties in various family member’s name without them being the “true” owner. If you are not a Canadian tax resident you won’t be filing Canadian taxes and so no capital gains taxes in Canada and likely in their home country. It has actual been a very lucrative safety deposit box for people. For many it was a way to get cash out of their home country and out it into a more stable country.
It only took months in BC to set up property registry especially in the city of Vancouver (not sure why it would take years in the rest of the country). If you are non resident of Canada but hold Canadian rental properties, a portion of the rental income must be withhold to the federal government. You might have to file a Canadian non resident tax return and when you sell any Canadian property, certain portion of the sales proceed would have to be withhold to the federal government (maybe a capital. gain tax in Canada and maybe in their home country). Depending on circumstances, it's an expensive safety deposit box for people. If you hold certain properties in BC especially in the city of Vancouver, you need to make annual declaration of its status. That's the annoying part.
Not the government so can’t tell you why it takes you so long. If Canadian real estate wasn’t a way people are parking their money abroad there wouldn’t be so many foreign owners. Many of these properties remain empty so losing a bit of money is not an issue. Also many countries don’t have capital gains taxes if the person actually is declaring they own property in Canada.
In Vancouver area it's just the ' tip of the iceberg ' along with the past Casino problems and inflated property values.
This has caused much animosity and cross-cultural issues for some areas that now has become a policing issue. Having to make an annual declaration for residential property owners is band-aid solution to show the government is doing something but doesn't affect the many involved in similar practices as the article above states.
Just can't figure out why suddenly you see so many very expensive European cars with 'L' or 'N' license decals on the back?
Sometimes seen these cars were used for meal delivery!
Been like that for a while. Saw a Mclaren with N in the parking of my apartment back then when I lived in Richmond, BC. It's a normal newish (less than 10 years old) apartment. I think the car was half the price of a condo unit there.... I was so shock... Then I saw them more often... I just became indifferent.
A brand new Tesla drop off my amazon package few days ago... (I guess eletric car prob make more sense than super car for package and meal delivery.)
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Live in the Northwest US. Super jealous that Lake Louise already has all of their ski runs open. My local ski area only has two ski runs open. It hasn't been a good start to the season.
One of the best options is buying old houses and renovating them. My family and I bought our house some years ago, and we changed almost 90% of it. We even decided to change the elevator. At first, the part including the elevator seemed the most complicated, almost impossible. However, with the help of hinchong.com, we managed to do everything in time and perfectly. They were super professional and made us trust the process. Here is one of the points that shows you that if you truly want something, you can achieve it.
Very interesting as only multi-million dollar houses in Canada have elevators installed... I guess it's another spam post?
