Two Ontario real estate associations oppose taxing foreign buyers in Toronto

From:

http://www.cp24.com/news/two-ontario-real-estate-associations-oppose-taxing-foreign-buyers-in-toronto-1.3085587

Two Ontario real estate associations have voiced opposition to following in Vancouver's footsteps and implementing a tax on foreign homebuyers, saying that such a "knee-jerk reaction" could have negative implications for the economy.

In letters penned to the provincial and municipal governments last month, the Toronto Real Estate Board and the Ontario Real Estate Association argue that instituting a tax on foreign homebuyers would do little to address affordability issues in Toronto's housing market.

Instead, it could cause house prices to soar in regions surrounding Toronto, thus pushing prices in Toronto even higher, the groups argue.

"both demand and supply issues should be considered as contributors to the growing affordability challenge. Of particular importance is what could be done at the local and provincial levels to bring more supply into the marketplace."

The associations suggest a number of measures including reducing or completely eliminating provincial and municipal land transfer taxes, and boosting a tax rebate for first-time buyers to reflect today's home prices.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday that she is waiting for more data to help gauge the differences between Toronto and Vancouver's housing markets, and to see what the impact of Vancouver's tax has been.

Ontario, B.C. and the federal government are all part of a working group currently looking at ways to address affordability issues, she noted.

In Metro Vancouver, home sales dropped 26 per cent following the Aug. 2 introduction of the 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said there were 2,489 homes sold in Metro Vancouver in August, down from 3,362 a year ago.

Some critics have voiced concerns that the Vancouver tax could cause investment to shift to Toronto, further stoking the flames of the city's already red-hot housing market.

Comments:

 do we know all the jurisdictions in the world that have taxes on foreign buyers? or plain simple dont allow foreign buyers? is there a database of this?

"Instead, it could cause house prices to soar in regions surrounding Toronto, thus pushing prices in Toronto even higher, the groups argue." - this is interesting, because it means that prices are going to soar in regions around Vancouver, now that Vancouver has implemented tax on foreign buyers. So it's a good time to invest in properties in areas around Vancouver. We should identify what are all the areas around Vancouver and track how their house prices move over the next months and years. is there a database of this?

"The organizations suggest there is a lack of research demonstrating how much foreign buyers are really driving up prices in Toronto." This kind of information would be very useful! it would be wonderful if this could be open data - why is this not being tracked already, by the Toronto Real Estate Board and the Ontario Real Estate Association?  and other real estate associations (in Canada and around the world)? what are they doing to track this? what other stats do they/can they track? what other stats are other real estate associations in the world tracking? find a list of all real estate associations in the work, contact them and ask them what stats they are collecting, and how it is being used, and then suggest the same to the real estate associations that are not tracking those stats. is there a database of this?

The associations suggest a number of measures including reducing or completely eliminating provincial and municipal land transfer taxes, and boosting a tax rebate for first-time buyers to reflect today's home prices - how does this work in other parts of the world? do we know which jurisdictions in the world have no/very high land transfer taxes and tax rebate for first time buyers? is there a database of this?

"Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday that she is waiting for more data to help gauge the differences between Toronto and Vancouver's housing markets, and to see what the impact of Vancouver's tax has been." where is this data going to come from, how is it going to be collected? will she share her methodology for collecting?

"Ontario, B.C. and the federal government are all part of a working group currently looking at ways to address affordability issues, she noted." what is this working group, who is it composed of?, is there any transparency?

In Metro Vancouver, home sales dropped 26 per cent following the Aug. 2 introduction of the 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers. - lets track how house prices and sales numbers move all over the world - month over month - all jurisdictions - is there a database for this? 

Some critics have voiced concerns that the Vancouver tax could cause investment to shift to Toronto, further stoking the flames of the city's already red-hot housing market.how is this being watched and monitored?