But do you think the investment is fairweather only? I don't see how it's immune from either shocks to the Canadian or Chinese market.
I think the premise of investor class immigrants picking up an asset which seems to be increasingly overpriced seems to be an odd idea. Even though theres some mighty deep pockets out there, as soon as the Chinese market realizes that the premise of ever rising real estate prices aren't sustainable, these same investor class immigrants driving up prices may realize that it takes a lot more than parking money offshore to make a good investment.
If things get soft in China, and prices don't come down here no one will be driving demand. I don't any of my friends (who are all pretty joining the ranks of yuppies) picking up the slack. I sure as heck won't be putting money into the housing market unless the assets I have start to produce less than the equivalent amount of money I'd be spending on rent.
If you can't soak up the amount of inventory retiring boomers are putting on the market then you could have a huge inventory without much of a market. As is, I know quite a few couples who should have over twice the average Canadian household income who're still priced out of a house in the DTES (including myself).
Just look at what stuff in is going for in my neighbourhood. The zoning is good for bigger lots where you can build a laneway house, but most of the stuff in the DTES looks like it needs a good gutting and sells for insane money.
2 Bdrm house on a 1000sqft lot
4 Bdrm house
I almost pulled the trigger on a house on Prior for $475k which seemed to have structural problems from the outside. It had good zoning which would allow for a suite and a laneway house, but it literally had thousands of hours of renovations that needed to be made. I like projects, but in the end I talked myself out of it before it sold.