[rybosworld]

The market's not bearing rent so much as existing property owners are colluding to prevent new construction.

If new construction wasn't so aggressively blocked in some major cities (San Francisco, Boston, all of Canada it seems), then the rents would not be nearly as high as they are.

Wealthy property owners are behaving a lot like a cartel in many places.

[jeffbee]

Exactly. The discourse about foreign buyers of homes in Canada is centered on the morally bankrupt notion that it is only wrong if that race exploits the system. If a good old white guy exploits the same system it is not worth mentioning. What I am saying, and you seem to concur, is that the system itself is the problem. The identity of the person exploiting it is irrelevant unless you are a racist.

[shutupnerd0000]

You're the only one fixated on race here. The distinction between foreign and local buyers is important to the discussion.

[jeffbee]

In what way?

[NBJack]

It is a legal distinction that has a huge number of implications in most countries. As is the focus of discussion on other threads, it necessarily changes approaches to income validation, the laws that apply, the presence or absence of credit history, etc.

[jeffbee]

You're just arguing about whether the foreigner is qualified, bonafide enough to operate the grift.

[gruez]

racism might be canceled these days, but nativism is alive and well.

[rybosworld]

I don't know how/why you even thought to interject race into this discussion.