[tamimio]

Fun fact: About 89% of Canada's land area (8,886,356 km² or 3,431,041 sq mi) is Crown land: 41% is federal Crown land and 48% is provincial Crown land. The remaining 11% is privately owned. For example, 92% of Quebec, 87% of Ontario, 95% of Newfoundland and Labrador, and 94% of the land in British Columbia are Crown land. So when you “buy” land, you actually become a tenant to the Crown. If you don’t pay the property taxes, “your” property can be registered for sale. The laws around properties in Canada are extremely complicated and stupid. A friend of mine, after building their house and wanting to connect the sewer to the municipal one, was required to pay more than $50k! After 2 years, they ended up having a septic tank instead.

Unfortunately, there’s no hope to fix the housing issue in a democratic way because the majority of the voters are landlords. The only possible solution is like Japan (where houses are depreciated assets) by having centralized control over housing, zoning, permits, and everything to maintain a flat price. Other than that, the future is grim for young people or anyone who doesn’t already own a house. I remember a year ago I saw a mortgage here in Canada of 70 years, so if you bought a house at 30, you will become a Crown tenant by 100!

(1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_land

[aorloff]

If you don't pay property taxes for long enough (usually 5 years) in the US, typically your property will be auctioned off at a county tax sale (assuming your lender hasn't paid the taxes and foreclosed first).

[b112]

Wildly inaccurate. No one owns crown land, if you buy land, that's "privately owned" If you don't pay property tax, eg you are in arrears, your land is seized and sold to pay your debt. Again, that has nothing to do with crown land.