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Exactly. We should restrict access to everything in society, except the bare essentials. In fact, we don't need cities either. We shall all live off the land and live simple agrarian lifestyles. Maybe the Khmer Rouge had the right idea! </sarcasm>

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/moodys-reviews-six-canadian-banks-could-downgrade/article4687294/

This isn't so much a capitalist market. The prices are not being driven by greed. They're being driven by buying power. That buying power is being subsidized by the government in three ways: subsidized insurance against default, government-sponsored mortgage lending in the primary market, and of...

Don't worry. Everything is fine. Next year will be a "record year" for the Toronto condo market! At least, well, that's what I've heard from the master analysts of real estate. In the alternative, what we'll see is a "minor correction". In the alternative, what we'll see is a "extended, but...

I don't see how being required to pay taxes when you sell real estate is a foreign ownership restriction ... I am pretty sure that foreign investors have to pay sales taxes and land transfer taxes when they buy here, too.

Neither the UK or the US have any restrictions on foreign ownership or real estate. I do not believe Australia does, either. But I am 100% confident the US and UK do not. Don't make things up.

When he says that the height concerns can be addressed, what he means is he wants them to reduce the height.

Prediction: This will not get built. A combination of softening market and intense NIMBYism, likely spearheaded by Adam Vaughan will derail it. In the alternative, if they do get built: only one or two of the towers will be built -- and at a significantly reduced height in order to appease the...

Dude. The Lib Dems are to the right of the Labour Party on economic policy. They too were campaigning on an austerity platform, albeit with different priorities and different social values and foreign policy from the Conservatives. That said, the Conservative and Liberal Party's in this...

Are you denying that Canada is special? Everyone knows that gravity applies everywhere but here. Just like in the US before 2008.

Despite O'Leary's caustic and offensive manner, his attitude towards VC investment is pretty typical of Toronto investors. Anyone who has been involved in the scene will tell you this.

It's not a matter of treating people differently. It's that there isn't a need for dynamic tech people in Toronto, because the sector itself is not dynamic. There's no risk capital in Canada. None. Nada. If the founders of Google, Sergei and Larry had walked into investors in Toronto (even...

This is a particularly irritating point which is often frog marched out by some analysts. The problem with the point is that it sounds reasonable enough in theory. But the reality is that houses have appreciated FAR more than household income. And have done so for decades. Yes, and consumer...

Not likely. What's likely to happen with a lot of investment condo stock, if those people exit and that part of the market collapses, you'll see property management companies swoop in and buy up tons of units at the depressed prices. And the rental stock will actually probably expand. You...

To expand on my last post, TD and BMO's data have both pegged Toronto's condo market to be anywhere from 40-60% investor owned. With investors representing the vast majority of sales in new properties. Like I said, I don't have firm data on these breakdowns. But from talking to some friends who...

Well, I was referring specifically to Toronto's condo market, so I don't think we can deduce my hypothesis is correct or false based on national data.

What I want is data on first-time home buyers as a percentage of the market over time. I don't have this data, and I'm trying to figure out how to compile it. But my hypothesis is, that their contribution to the housing market has been diminishing steadily over the past ten years, and has...

What I love about all these reports which call for a soft landing, is they are EXACTLY like all the reports in the US in the 2006-2007 period. And then, even when things were clearly going south, the analysts changed tacts and claimed the problems were "contained" to certain distressed market...

I'm not so sure. Rent prices, unlike sale prices (due to the ability to utilize leverage) are bound by income. Rent prices cannot exceed a certain percentage of people's incomes. If they do, people will simply start moving elsewhere. To green pastures, as it were. There is money in...