Tricks Tricks:
rickc rickc:
What would you recommend that he do?
Tax the ever living FUCK out of people/companies that own more than 2 residential properties
Ban foreign investment buying
Push for nation wide development. Provide municipalities with increase infrastructure support to promote it.
Rent control (likely provincial)
I think that your first two ideas would help, but they don't go far enough. Most flippers that I have known only own two homes.....the one that they live in and the one that they are flipping. The more than two house rule would not take them out of the game. They would need some type of law about selling more than one home in a certain time frame (say like five years ) would require the forfeit of all profits to the crown. Flippers artificially deplete the inventory of cheap homes by targeting them. Lending organizations are to blame as well. They want the house to be in perfect condition before they issue the mortgage. Many sellers are not interested in fixing up the property prior to the sell. Maybe they inherited the house and live on the other side of the country. They just want the house sold already. The flippers come along with cash and buy it up. They put some lipstick on the pig and make a killing. The government should force lending organizations to offer special "fixer up" mortgages where they have the mortgage at the going rate, and then offer more money to bring the house up to standards at a fixed one percent. Put it in writing what repairs are to be done and the time limits required for the repairs. Let some people that need mortgages get a shot at the cheaper homes for once instead of lining the pockets of the flippers.
Rent control sounds good but can cause more problems than it corrects. It takes a lot of money to build an apartment complex. Most of the people building apartments are private capitol groups. They are in it for the long haul. They make their money by collecting rent. They are not looking to flip properties. If you institute rent control there will not be another non government owned apartment complex built any where in that area ever again. The nation wide development of non government owned apartment complexes would grind to a halt. The ones that are currently operating would convert to condos. They would tell their tenants to cough up 1.5 million for their unit or move out. The tenants that can't get a mortgage would be homeless. Either that or the capitol groups could evict everyone, level the complex, and build strip malls. These capitol groups exist to make money, and they will. One way or another. I can't see them standing by and letting their margins get slashed. They are going to do whatever they have to do to keep the money flowing in. Ontario removed rent control on buildings built after 1991 hoping that it would lead to the construction of new rental properties. No one went for it because they knew it was just a ploy. They knew that rent control would just come back in the future, and it did. Thats why the rental market is so tight in Ontario. No one wants to build rental properties there. Rent control helps renters in the short term by keeping their rent in line, but it hurts them in the long run as it prevents any future construction of rental properties.
Building more (lots more ) government owned housing would help in the long run. I don't know about Canadian law but in the states if the government takes property, they have to pay fair market value. It could bankrupt the government to buy up all the privately owned apartment complexes at fair market value. Private companies do not want to build new rental properties, then the government needs to step up and build them. They also need to quit being assholes as to who can live there. They act like you make too much money to live in the projects if you have a full time job making minimum wage. More reasonable, realistic guidelines as to income need to be put in place. Quit throwing people out because they got a .25 cent an hour raise. Everything is for the destitute and nothing for the working poor. Just my two cents.
CKA Moderator 
CKA Moderator 
