FSW WORLDWIDE

[GandiBaat]

You might argue that increasing interest rates will cool-off the bubble and it will of course, but it will absolutely hurt the people and not institutions. Everytime that happens, a lot of homes change hands and end up belonging to the companies.

Yes and no. And actually hurting people is good here. It will bring some sense in them. Right now all the money is going into real estate. Meaning, no money for real industry. Can you believe it? EVEN after 2 and a half year after pandemic Canada is not able to manfacture covid vaccines in the country. This country used to have a decent vaccine manufacturing capability.

Real estate is gobbling up the much precious capital. If you make houses 10 million a pop, you don't have much money left to make practically anything.

Yeah no relation between the government and systemic issues and the problems in India.

Name ONE democratic government that has solved water delivery problem for 1.4 billion people on the planet.
Name ONE democratic government of any kind that has delivered education to 1.4 billion people in 26 and more different languages.
Name ONE democratic country that has successfully run a court and judicial system for more than 1 billion people.
Name ONE democratic country that has successfully provided healthcare for 1.4 billion people with diverse genetic background as India.

The scale at which India needs to solve problems is unprecedented in the history of humanity. People outside engineering simply do not appreciate how scaling is among the hardest problem there is.

Try this:
Make food for yourself. Easy peasy japanese.
Make food for yourself and your spouse. Hmm... labour of love but doable.
Make food for family of four... Damn that a full time job.
Make food for a restaurant... you require a line chef kind of kitchen. Its a totally different system than making food in your kitchen.
Make food for a whole village... I do not know how they do it.
Make food for one entire province... Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman.

Scale is everything. India exists on a scale that is unprecedented in human history. It is diverse on a scale that is not seen anywhere. Its problem have yet not even been studied and less likely to be solved. And it needs to be democratic republic.... Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman.

 

[ElvisRamaj]

Both of them do not apply to Canada.

Institutions are NOT snatching up land or houses here. Biggest proof? house demand is extremely sensitive to interest rates. Mortgage rate go up, demands and sale go away. This is not the behaviour of cash rich institutional buyers. They will snatch up all the real estate during a down turn. Does not happen here.

Hmm, lets get somethings clear first:

- Affordability has nothing to do with a bubble. Bubble is refered to the true value of things, in this case homes. Example: Real value of home is 100K, but in the market is 250k. Thats what you call a bubble. You can afford to buy it at 250k, but that has nothing to do with the real value.

One example of companies snatching up homes in Canada, just for you :
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/toronto-developer-buying-homes-anti-poverty-group-1.6066903

An anti-poverty group is calling a Toronto-based developer's plan to buy $1 billion worth of single-family homes and turn them into rental properties a "frightening" example of how even more people will be priced out of an increasingly expensive housing market.

The plan, reported by the Globe and Mail on Monday, would see Core Development Group build a single-family home rental business by buying housing stock in medium-sized cities across Ontario, including London, Kingston, Hamilton, Barrie, Cambridge, Peterborough, Guelph and St. Catharines.

The developer wants to expand its footprint outside the province by 2026, to eventually build a fleet of 4,000 rental units in Ontario, B.C., Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

 

[GandiBaat]

- Affordability has nothing to do with a bubble. Bubble is refered to the true value of things, in this case homes. Example: Real value of home is 100K, but in the market is 250k. Thats what you call a bubble. You can afford to buy it at 250k, but that has nothing to do with the real value.

A basic question :
How do you find the "true value" of home?

 

[Lixa]

Yes and no. And actually hurting people is good here. It will bring some sense in them. Right now all the money is going into real estate. Meaning, no money for real industry. Can you believe it? EVEN after 2 and a half year after pandemic Canada is not able to manfacture covid vaccines in the country. This country used to have a decent vaccine manufacturing capability.

Real estate is gobbling up the much precious capital. If you make houses 10 million a pop, you don't have much money left to make practically anything.


Name ONE democratic government that has solved water delivery problem for 1.4 billion people on the planet.
Name ONE democratic government of any kind that has delivered education to 1.4 billion people in 26 and more different languages.
Name ONE democratic country that has successfully run a court and judicial system for more than 1 billion people.
Name ONE democratic country that has successfully provided healthcare for 1.4 billion people with diverse genetic background as India.

The scale at which India needs to solve problems is unprecedented in the history of humanity. People outside engineering simply do not appreciate how scaling is among the hardest problem there is.

Try this:
Make food for yourself. Easy peasy japanese.
Make food for yourself and your spouse. Hmm... labour of love but doable.
Make food for family of four... Damn that a full time job.
Make food for a restaurant... you require a line chef kind of kitchen. Its a totally different system than making food in your kitchen.
Make food for a whole village... I do not know how they do it.
Make food for one entire province... Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman.

Scale is everything. India exists on a scale that is unprecedented in human history. It is diverse on a scale that is not seen anywhere. Its problem have yet not even been studied and less likely to be solved. And it needs to be democratic republic.... Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman.

I don't have time nor energy for it but you did the same thing as your previous analysis on real estate. You just pick two informations making your point and forgot all the others things... Not a very objective way to go.

 

[ElvisRamaj]

A basic question :
How do you find the "true value" of home?

Price of land for the last 15 years + factoring inflation + the cost of building the home as it is right now.

 

[GandiBaat]

I don't have time nor energy for it but you did the same thing as your previous analysis on real estate. You just pick two informations making your point and forgot all the others things... Not a very objective way to go.

As I said before, people usually underestimate scale. Its ironic.

 

[GandiBaat]

Average price of land for the last 15 year + factoring inflation + the cost of building the home as it is right now.

So we are deriving real value of a house using market value over a 15 year period and current market cost of labour and material used for constructing a house? How is "real value" different than market cost? To me it seems that you are deriving "real value" as averaged land market value mainly. Then how is real value different than market price?

I say "real value" is what your population is ready to part with for living in the house. If no one wants to live in the house or that land, does it have any real value?

Housing value is intricately linked to people willing to live there. In other words, housing value has a very direct connection with affordability.

When housing price get delinked with real value OR affordability, you get a bubble.

An extreme example is China's ghost towns. Towns created for purely store of money. They have no economy, no people living there. Its a massive bubble and ponzi scheme. Some believe it is unraveling lately. We will see how it goes.

 

[somenath1061]

Can anybody suggest a real estate website possibly tried and tested to find out decent places to stay in vancouver? The rents looks crazy though thorough out the internet.

 

[GandiBaat]

Can anybody suggest a real estate website possibly tried and tested to find out decent places to stay in vancouver? The rents looks crazy though thorough out the internet.

padmapper, criagslist.

Go to websites of major property management companies like devon, proline, brown brothers etc. They list vacant properties under their management.

Be careful in renting places from strangers a bit.. In no case make any payment using cash. Always pay using crossed / account payee cheque.

 

[Choupi]

Hiii guys
Regarding the post ITA forms i have few questions . Please advise
Looong post ..sorry
* How Can we disclose internship related to studies ? In which section ? 2 different lines that overlap are fine ?
For exple: I was a student from sept 2010 to August 2011 , but also had an internship from march2011 to August .

* How Can we disclose a visit to the family of 2 months ? In which section (s)?

* what about visits from country of residence to country of origin ? I Can declare most of them but not all (LOE IS fine ? Or there IS absolutely no need to mention all of them ?)

* My husband overstayed in France for 6 months ... We have mentionned thz period as unemployment ...but how Can we disclose the overstay ?

* I was living in France and traveled a loooooot in Europe . I cannot remember all of them ... Some were by car without ticket . How Can i mention that ?

Thank you very much for your kind help

 

[RSub]

You haven't seen muffin my dear!

It gets better!

People take out ads in news paper to get a simple appointment with a doctor so they can renew their prescription. YEAH! (https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/central-saanich-couple-without-a-family-doctor-turn-to-newspaper-ad-to-get-prescriptions-filled-5651845)

There is a waiting list of 1-2 months for an doctor's appointment for those who have broken their wrist or something.

I mean EVEN back home, in India, a doctor was always a phone call away!

Trust me, immigrations is just the beginning of frustration with this country. Had India not having such a messed up heat wave and pollution situation, I would have seriously left this country.


10 million dollars for a house. 2 months for a doctors appointment.


OOOOOh Canada!

I can relate. My doctors couldn't treat my minor fracture on time (lack of appointment availabilities, ridiculous ER cost, and stupid paperwork) even though I work in an Medical Center with a top notch healthcare. I booked my flight tickets to India, stayed there for two weeks and got treated and came back. The treatment costed less than $100 and tickets costed $900 something. Oh, this was in US.

 

[ElvisRamaj]

So we are deriving real value of a house using market value over a 15 year period and current market cost of labour and material used for constructing a house? How is "real value" different than market cost? To me it seems that you are deriving "real value" as averaged land market value mainly. Then how is real value different than market price?

I say "real value" is what your population is ready to part with for living in the house. If no one wants to live in the house or that land, does it have any real value?

Housing value is intricately linked to people willing to live there. In other words, housing value has a very direct connection with affordability.

When housing price get delinked with real value OR affordability, you get a bubble.

An extreme example is China's ghost towns. Towns created for purely store of money. They have no economy, no people living there. Its a massive bubble and ponzi scheme. Some believe it is unraveling lately. We will see how it goes.

Market value is what people are willing to pay right this second for that property, some 50% over asking price and some 35% below, meaning its not a implication of real value.

You derive real value by factoring a lot of things, some of them being the price apreciation of the whole neighborhood, location, peak prices and lowest prices, and most importantly the price you can liquidate it immidiately should the need arise.

 

[Deleted member 994371]

You are welcome!

Never been to Calgary. How was it? Did you post about it?

No, I haven't posted about Calgary (or my tour) yet.

To start off, the city is extremely clean. The suburbs of the city are very spaced and are indistinguishable from the satellite cities of Toronto (Brampton, Mississauga, York, etc.). Calgary has the nicest downtown of any city I visited (compared to Vancouver and Toronto). Your life in Calgary will be very similar to living in any city in Ontario, but with nicer people.

If you wish to travel through the city, there is the C-train, but it only covers a little bit of the east, west, and south of Calgary. The bus transit is like any other city in Ontario. It takes an hour to go anywhere whereas driving will take you 20 mins max.

When I first landed in Calgary, it felt like a dead city with no culture. However, the more time I spent there, the more I liked it. To start with, Calgary is truly multicultural. In other parts of Canada, each region is dominated by particular demography. That wasn't the case here. You will meet people from all parts of the world throughout the city and isn't dominated by just one race. Unfortunately, if you want a vacation or would like to visit nature spots, you would have to go to Banff, which is like just one hour away from Calgary. If you travel around the city during the day, you will barely see anyone anywhere. The city comes to life during the evening. Even downtown feels like less of a downtown and more like a place people go to relax, with people taking walks and enjoying themselves in the restaurants and malls.

Even though people say Calgary is cheap, I didn't find it so. It may be cheaper than other cities in Canada but the rent over there is still comparable to a place in, say, Brampton or Mississauga. Houses are only cheap to own and not rent. Groceries and other things cost the same as in any other city in Ontario. It's only the tax (which is 5% on most things) that provides a little bit of a breather. I actually found the food to be cheaper in BC (to eat out and for groceries).

Weather-wise, it is true what they say about Calgary. It is very dry over there. I found myself reaching for a water bottle every 15-minutes or so. Although I visited in the peak of summer, during the mornings, it's like 12 degrees C during the early hours over there.

Having said that, I would still prefer to live in Vancouver initially just until I can own a car and drive it. The Vancouver Skytrain beats any public transport in Canada. I have heard similar things about the subway system in Montreal but I didn't visit it, unfortunately. I find Calgary to be more similar and had many parallels with life in Ontario. For example, if you don't own a car, it's impossible to do anything outside of Calgary. It's important to keep in mind that there are only 3 cities in the whole of Alberta province, which is not true for Ontario or BC.

 

[Deleted member 994371]

Care to elaborate on your verdicts and reasons? I'm genuinely curious.

For me, after being here for 2 months, the biggest negatives for Canada (compared to the US) are

1) poor infrastructure (roads are not great, 1 major nation-wide internet outage, 1 major city-wide power outage during my time here)

2) poor quality of service by govt/big institutions (IRCC, Service Canada, banks, telecoms)

3) inadequate healthcare services (wait times mainly)

4) insane real estate prices to income ratio.

Granted, I was aware of a few of these prior to moving here; but anyway I'm not sure if these are enough to make me turn my back.

Pretty much this. US has the same problems that Canada has but they pay the salaries to make for it which makes the problems you mentioned digestable.

When I was in Canada, people were more obsessed with US politics than Canadian politics. There is nothing unique about Canada at all. I have said this again and again. Canada is just US lite.

If I am to become a capitalist slave, I might as do it for the original, then settle for this lite version of it.

On a side note, as I visiting a lot of touristy places, I got the chance to meet a lot of Americans. Americans are a lot of fun to talk to than Canadians. I feel like I would have a better time over there than in Canada. This is where being multicultural goes against Canada in my book. For example, if you walk around in the satellite cities of Toronto, you won't feel like you are in North America at all.

 

[Impatient Dankaroo]

Why look at Calgary or Edmonton!

World wide Look at USA! And then see Canada... notice something weird?

One must remember that there is NO DEARTH of land in Canada of all places, so this "world wide real estate bubble" does not make sense at all! I mean if Alberta can do it, so should BC. If USA can keep housing prices low enough, Canada should not have any trouble!

Also remember, there is no big enough industry in Vancouver or BC for that matter.

Mr. Gandibaat, what do BC and ON have in common, they both vote Lib. Lib = high prices