Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext
Ah yes, the veiled racism inferrence and only a few posts in.
It "makes a difference" for several reasons relating to SpongeG's article:
a) they're not earning their money from here and that makes it hard for anyone living, working and paying taxes here to compete in the housing market with them.
b) as the article points out that's negatively impacting businesses trying to recruit talent to actually work and create jobs here.
It doesn't matter (to me or the issue) whether they're from the People's Republic of China or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. What matters is it has become an an outside influence both distorting the market and becoming a negative to the economic health of the region.
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So based on this principle, would it matter to you if the buyers were coming from another part of Canada, like what has been happening in the Interior with Albertan investors?
You've been beating this particular drum for a while now. Unfortunately, blaming the Mainland Chinese, British or other 'outsiders' is simply sensationalist (although the cynical part of me wonders how big this issue would be in the media if it WERE the British or Germans as opposed to PRC Chinese) and ignores reality: Vancouver is a desirable place to live; China's economic development means there are an increasing number of people with a lot of money; and many of them think Vancouver a safe haven to park their money and bring their families.
Bitching about it and wringing one's hands about how [insert ethnic group / nationality here] are driving up property prices is pretty counterproductive unless you are trying to feed a xenophobic backlash -- particularly when it comes to visible minorities. My suggestion is to get over it. Instead, write to your elected officials to start bringing some pressure to bear on them to constructively deal with the issue. A little bit of political will to increase transaction taxes to curb speculation or place restrictions on where and what type of properties foreigners can own similar to what Switzerland does shouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility.