Death of the Canadian real estate investor?

Canadian real estate investors are disappearing. Government restrictions are causing investors to relocate funds to other opportunities, many outside of Canada. We need investors to buy properties, ideally upgrade/maintain them, and create rentals for the market. The vast majority of Canadians can no longer afford to buy homes, so they have to rent. That’s a whole other story, of course.

The ban on Airbnb has a negligible impact on investor buyers but has caused some owners to list their homes so they don’t need to deal with our tenancy laws that heavily favour the tenant. Is this a good thing? Well, there are more listings, but not necessarily more rentals. Also, without Airbnb, tourists visiting Vancouver are forced to pay disturbingly high hotel fees, so many are likely going to avoid coming at all. It’ll hurt tourism more than help the housing market. I, for example, refuse to spend $500+ for a night in a hotel and will only travel to cities with Airbnb options, in most circumstances.

The new minimum four-month notice to move into an existing tenanted property, which also requires a one-month rent payment to the tenant, is causing buyers to avoid tenanted properties.

The minimal amount you can increase rent annually doesn’t keep up with inflation, high interest rates, and the cost of maintenance. This means taking on a property with an existing tenant is often a huge burden and would cause a normal property to be cash-negative. A smart investor will avoid this property, too.

The ban on flipping is causing all of those impostors to find opportunities outside of the country. A flipping investor buys a property in poor condition and updates it for the next buyer. I do not see the harm in this or why this ridiculous band is in place. Again, more investors are leaving.

The updated capital gains tax when selling rental properties is causing investors to think about the point of investing here if they lose the majority of their profits with a future sale. Again, they’re looking to other areas to invest their money.

Yes, the foreign buyer ban has had a positive (although minimal) effect. However, it was 40 years too late, and the damage was already done.

The reckless levels of federal immigration are going to raise rental rates further.

Our provincial and federal governments are an absolute disaster right now and things are looking like they’re going get a lot worse before there’s any hope of getting better.

Even worse, the federal government is now considering taxing your principal residence. If that happens, how many citizens will give up, say F-this, and leave Canada?

Money is leaving Canada at record levels, and it’s about to get a lot worse. This is not good for our country. We need new governments, provincially and federally.

To make money in real estate today, it would be best to buy a principal residence, renovate and live in it until our wonderful (extreme sarcasm) government permits you to sell it without heavy penalties. Rinse and repeat.

Buying long-completion presales is also an option, but mainly for your principal residence. Seeing how you are essentially now banned from assigning/flipping them, that is no longer an ideal investment strategy.

More importantly, what do you think?