For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver

Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver by partycoder on Sunday May 07, 2017 @09:38PM (#14288698)

Real state seems to be a preferred way to stash money overseas. Vancouver is full of homes without occupants in them because of this reason. They're now trying to mitigate the problem by applying a high tax penalty for home owners that keep their house without occupants, making it inefficient to buy houses to keep them vacant.

They also do it domestically, but leading to ghost towns.

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Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver by redahs on Monday May 08, 2017 @03:34AM (#14289890)

A more comprehensive solution would be to eliminate all other taxes and fund all public services from taxes on land. This naturally incentives local ownership because owners of high demand locations do not receive a benefit from the high taxes they are assessed to pay for public services for residents unless they actually live there.

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Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver by spoonie on Monday May 08, 2017 @12:31AM (#14289263)

I wonder if this is because you can get around money laundering/financial control laws when buying a house for cash? Do the sellers have to check where your money is from when you buy a house?

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Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver by toomuchtodo on Monday May 08, 2017 @12:45AM (#14289323)

It's because it's a safe value/wealth store. And the checks are superficial.

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Re:For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver by partycoder on Monday May 08, 2017 @01:59AM (#14289548)

If you are a Chinese communist party official technically you decide what is legal.

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