Home prices are rising around the world, but it’s not the fault of Chinese
Foreigners – mainland Chinese in particular – are being blamed for distorting property markets, but there are bigger forces at play
The causes are multiple and complicated, so it’s pointless to blame it all on foreigners. And yet, we do. Even rust-belt districts like Windsor, Ontario, have seen prices soar by up to 20 per cent in the past year, and you don’t see many mainland Chinese moving there.
In many places, there has been a housing policy panic among their governments. And Chinese buyers have become easy targets. It’s often unspoken, but everyone knows who those “foreigners” are. It’s the new “yellow peril”.
Early in the last century, many Westerners believed dirt-poor East Asians, mostly Chinese, threatened to overwhelm their countries with diseased immigrants and their Mongoloid offspring. They were happy to exploit their cheap labour, though.
Today, in a milder version, some think Chinese investors and immigrants are making their cities and houses unaffordable. But in market after market, that is almost never the case. And of course, most locals are more than happy to pocket foreign money when it suits them.