It is not just that it is an attractive place to park wealth as far as ROI. It is attractive period because you can park your wealth in an obscured way in a place more fair than where you live.
If you have a lot of money in places like China and Russia or if you have money from graft, it could all be taken away quickly. So these people are very willing to buy something real in a "safer" country, even if it has a negative ROI.
This is not the only problem with housing in general, but it is a contributing factor that does not provide value for people that are looking to actually live somewhere.
> If you have a lot of money in places like China and Russia or if you have money from graft, it could all be taken away quickly.
I don't think people from Russia or China can do this anymore. At least the Russians can no longer do it in the West. As for the mainland Chinese, the CCP has blocked capital flight and they have even blocked cryptocurrency. This happened two years ago ie. unless they already got their money out of China two years earlier, they can't buy anything in Canada
EDIT it happened three years ago and not two years
From that perspective, the simplest way to resolve the money parking issue is to seize assets owned by chinese or Russian citizens. Break that assumption for non-canadians.
Alternatively, provide a dedicated asset class for that, so they can put their money in something other than housing
If you have a lot of money in places like China and Russia or if you have money from graft, it could all be taken away quickly. So these people are very willing to buy something real in a "safer" country, even if it has a negative ROI.
This is not the only problem with housing in general, but it is a contributing factor that does not provide value for people that are looking to actually live somewhere.