It is easy for this to get political.
Which countries have some form of capital gains tax?
This might be a Uk term but you are taxed whenever you sell a property.
Not too sure how much it is these days but in some other countries they only tax you if it is a rental/second property.
Our property market is too hot at the moment because of the massive (almost) untaxed profit that can be made from trading.
Hamburg Germany,
that would be around 1mil (euro) depending on location can go up massively also.
All depends on the size of the property, the actual house price almost doesn’t matter anymore, so wether its a small 2bd 1ba house or a massive villa with 10bd , doesnt matter too much hence that measurment is not used at all here, its all about m2 of the Lot, or rather how much of that lot you can build on, if you can put on like a 5 story apartment complex legally its worth a LOT more than if you only build up to XYZ m2
. Rent has turned into complete utter nonsense here . but most people still rent. Also there is massive taxes and fees you have to pay when you buy or sell, so there isn’t a-lot of flipping stuff as you need quite a while holding a property to even break even on that (if you rent out) .
I literally just bought a apartment as a investment , not in Hamburg but one small city next to it :
360.000 Euro Buying price
5400 Euro Notary costs (1.5%)
23.400 Euro Property-Buying Tax (6.5%)
Then there also is all the fun things like property tax… e.t.c
But then my dads property went up like 5x in 20 years , its pretty much insane
so all in all , no fun. unless you bought something 20 years ago
Capital gains tax definitely exists here in the US…
There is a thing here called a 1031 Exchange for rental/investment property, where, if you sell a home and re-invest the proceeds into buying another home of equal or greater value within a certain timeframe, you can avoid capital gains tax…
There are other ways to reduce capital gains tax as well, primary residence exclusions, short term vs. long term capital gains, etc, etc… Lots of stipulations & hoops to jump thru.
Unfortunately I’m not a real estate tycoon, and the best time to get my foot in the door decades ago was when I didn’t have house money so… 
Not until another crash methinks, but even then without some kind of legislative intrusion into the current system nothing will change. So nothing will change.
I hate to be a cynic about this, but if there’s one thing our entire government can agree on it’s it’s allowing the housing market to run amok. It’s still crazy to me that once you clear the rich-person hurdle of having a 20% down payment you can buy a house with a monthly payment less than you could rent the same house for. AND YOU CAN WRITE A BUNCH OF THAT PAYMENT ON YOUR TAXES!
Here in the UK, the other thing you have to take into account, (especially if you live further out from London like I do), is the cost of commuting.
My one hour each way commute costs £5424 annually, or $7363
If any silver lining has come of the pandemic, it’s WFH. I was commuting about 1-1.5 hours each way. Makes a 10 hour day feel like 8, working from home. I get to see my kids, take care of things around the house when waiting on renders/clients… I do miss seeing my colleagues in real life though… Are you having to go into the office @paul_round?
Yes.
We downsized a couple of years before the Pandemic. We traded a bit (OK, a lot) of space for a smaller nut and less commuting. I wouldn’t have been able to work at the office if we hadn’t, and with WFH for two of us, band width was an issue.
Yeah, Adjustable Rate Mortgages here in the US were such a scam. Finally afford that house you’ve always wanted! They were giving out loans like candy to people that had no business owning/financing a home. Really sad actually, seeing all the ARM infomercials all over the place. It smelled really fishy at the time. The rest is history…
I’m not sure if/when there will be another crash, because of all the investment in purchasing homes, and the low inventory here… I think those that are already “locked in” have watched the housing market take off around them, and are weary of upending the boat if their situations are manageable. If people were going to foreclose in droves, we’d have seen it already I think… The future is still uncertain though… Who knows if the job market tanks and people start foreclosing…
One thing I will say that I’m surprised of, is the fact that during this pandemic we saw the housing market going up, not down…
@PlaceYourBetts A beautiful sunny 28c yesterday and a miserable rainy 20c today.
A single story 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house with double garage on our street in Bondi sold for 5.1 Million last month.
I think as interest rates go up, you’ll see the market cool down. Nobody will be able to afford the payment if the rate is double.
Unless you’re able to pay cash… Which is what a lot of these investment/development entities (and folks with money) have been doing out here for years… Takes money to save money… It’s insane to think that say, for a $1,000,000 loan at a 5% interest rate for 30 years, you’ll end up paying close to 2 Million by the time it’s paid off.
But I think you’re right, generally. In non-major cities it’ll hopefully mellow out once interest rates go up. I wonder what the appetite is for the Fed to keep holding rates low…
Every time I think of bedrooms in a house, this comes to mind:
I read this too, as a millennial living in an already expensive city, it’s depressing to read that even I left the NYC area, I’d still be paying a boatload for a house because of the reasons in that article (I found the “iBuyers” and AirBnB Hoteliers to be particularly frustrating and maddening). I’ve basically given up on owning a house in my lifetime. I DO however live in a rent stabilized apartment… but, it sort of sucks, isn’t well maintained, has heating issues, roaches, etc. Hard to leave though because where ya gonna go?
This is turning into one of the most depressing threads on Logik in a long time, save for the obvious ones about people we’ve lost.
I think it’s politics and it seems clear that the federal reserve can be bullied.
I really don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, I swear… 
Into keeping rates artificially low…