- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ca
- cross-posted to:
- canada@lemmy.ca
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My wife and I watched this last night. Our conclusion was that there a whole lot of really dumb-ass investors out there.
The main thesis is that small, basically useless units are built to satisfy the requirements of people hoping to either flip directly or to rent to cover the difference between finance cost and eventual market value. That is they are built to the demands of the investors, both institutional and private.
How bad of an investor do you have to be to be sinking money into a dwelling that nobody actually wants to live in? And how did we get so many of them that it’s impacting housing to this degree?
My opinion is that someone, somewhere has been running a con. A scheme where your market is not people who want a place to live, but people who are looking to make a profit by selling to others looking to make a profit.
Now the scheme has run its course and the most recent owners can’t get out because, surprise!, nobody actually wants to mortgage their very lives for a glorified closet.
That’s why for buildings, minimum construction requirements and foreign investor stops are so important.
I wonder how many of these places are owned purely for their speculative value in the future, just to own as an asset. Like million dollar paintings or rare cars.
I wonder if real estate can be used for money laundering.
don’t think it’s a thesis when what you said is pretty much fact.
due to the nature of my job I’ve dealt with a lot of these units and looked at god knows how many floor plans. They cram as many units onto a floor as humanly possible regardless of how stupid the floor plans are or how small the units are. I’ve seen units where the majority of it, I shit you not, is a hallway from the front door to a “living space” and not a straight hallway mind you.
I’ll never forget the one where you walk in, make your way down the hall, take a 90 degree turn, keep walking, and then you end up in what’s essentially a closet studio. Like square footage wise most of what you’re paying for you can’t actually use other than walking.
So I’m not surprised at all that people can’t sell these things and that no one wants to live in them. I honestly, firmly, believe that most of these “investor owners” bought these units sight unseen. Because anyone with half a brain would look at some of these places and say “I will never able to sell this shit hole”
It’s a total scheme. the construction of these buildings are of the lowest quality. low quality fittings, low quality pipes, low quality drywall, everything and on top of that they hire low quality construction workers to build the things. Primary example, Ice Condos. I’ve stopped taking calls from them cause I refuse to step another foot in that building. That’s a building that A. should have never been built and B. if anyone working for the City in an official capacity was worth their salt they’d have that place condemned. It’s a death trap. It’s either going to one day burn to the ground or completely flood out or someones ceiling is going to give out and kill them.
Methinks the COVID crisis upset the apple cart or had a factor in the crash. These closet units should be around $200k tops IMHO.
Yeah, this looks like a ponzi scheme using (useless) real estate. Can’t say I feel bad for whoever gets stuck with it. Sucks that everyone else has to deal with inflated housing prices because of it, though.
Its money laundering.
Hadn’t thought of that. How would they get their money out if the asset can’t be sold?
I don’t think it would matter. Put a loan against it. If the debt defaults, someone else inherits it…
