sburns
Well-known member
Yup exactly. Can't agree enough. I've met a few of these students, not as far as you described, and all decent people, but gives me pause as to how they are living the way they live.The immigrants driving up the housing prices are not the refugees coming here with nothing and starting from scratch. I have no issues with such cases.
The immigrants driving up the housing prices are the rich international students coming here with mommy/daddy's money and buying property. These people are usually excluded from foreign ownership stats because they're considered residents after a short period of time. When I was at U of T a few years ago I met many such people. Here's how it works:
- Kid with rich parents from from a foreign country (usually China) gets accepted at U of T or other university.
- Kid gets students visas (ez pz) and moves here.
- Parents start funneling money through the kid, usually in the form of buying real estate, small businesses, etc. I knew a 20 year old Chinese guy at U of T who was the legal owner of several gas station in downtown Toronto. Explain to me how a 20 year old student with no business experience or income ends up doing that.
- Step 3 is usually facilitated by crooked mortgage brokers, lenders, casinos, real estate brokers, and lawyers who will happily accept money without reporting to FINTRAC.
- Kid graduates from university, and gets a job in Canada for a certain number of years. Within a year of graduation they are likely permanent residents due to visa fast tracking for students/new grads.
- Thanks to step 5, their property acquisitions are no longer reported under foreign ownership rules, which also means no foreign ownership taxes apply, because the owners are now residents.
- Now the money really flows. The kid now starts buying more property with mommy/daddy's money -- in most cases the houses will sit empty.
- The parents have now successfully sheltered millions of illegal money from China in the North American real estate market.
Meanwhile Joe Average and his wife trying to buy a house in the GTA on a 200k combined income are getting outbid because of Chinese buyers coming in and buying with favorable terms (over asking price, no contingent closings, etc.). The government could do something about it, but it requires a lot of effort (following the money) and would be bad for our economy (real estate market on fire == good).
All those involved are getting comfortable with the easy money (real estate, schools etc), and driving up costs, while the rest of us have to suck it up and gov does nothing. Middle class squish, and burden with more taxes and expenses. ?