The US, Japan and the EU are all printing absurd amounts of money. That "stimulus" needs to go somewhere, and right now it's going to every single asset class.

The central banks wanted inflation, but they got some perverted form, where wages and prices remain stagnant, and only stocks/real estate/etc have had their prices increase.

So what's next?

Depending on how idealistic/cynical you are, a new feudal dystopia of renters vs rent seekers, a bloody revolution, or just a gradual increase of consumer inflation to match.

I mean, as a sorry Java jockey, I make around $5,000 per month. I frequent Reddit, a news aggregator with comments. Reddit is worth $1,700,000,000 dollars, according to the latest funding round.

Hint: Governments have more perceived control than actual control.

It's seriously disappointing, but if the claims by people crying out about "Chinese money" are correct, 15% was never going to be enough. If your concern as an individual is your currency losing 50% of it's value over night [likely worse case for these individuals], then a 15% tax, even in a bubble market starts to look like a good deal.

But that shouldn't be the alternative for these individuals. The alternative should be doing the same thing somewhere without a tax. Say... Toronto.

Which they are, but in the case that you need to get to your 'asset' Vancouver is a hell of a lot closer so it's a preferable option. As someone who regularly commutes to the other side of the world, i feel like what I'm saying probably sounds odd if you don't...but i suspect this is a major factor.

Part of that is that the Government relaxed the rules, e.g. allowing students and foreign workers to purchase real-estate without paying the tax. So the markets do work.

The government and their developer pals were counting on the tax not making a huge difference. And when prices started moving down they immediately relaxed it to counteract that. At least that's one way this story can be told.

There were already loopholes where foreigners could avoid the tax through local corporations or have relatives buy for them.

Because it's not really the Yellow Peril of Chinese speculators responsible for the housing crunch, but urbanization and real actual immigration.