They’re In Too Far Over Their Head And It’s Getting Flushed Out

A report from Tampa Bay Newspapers in Florida. “‘Vacation rentals are a sore subject for residents of Indian Rocks Beach. The beach town of a little over 3,600 residents had more than 2,300 short-term rental listings on sites like Airbnb and VRBO in July, according to rental tracking site AirDNA. Some homes may have multiple active listings, inflating AirDNA’s count. The cycle also feels tedious for Steve Van Leeuwen, who owns two rentals in the city. He told commissioners that rentals give back to Indian Rocks Beach through tourism taxes. ‘If you don’t want tourists, don’t live here,’ he said. ‘I really don’t think (residents in opposition) have anything to do.'”

Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii. “A Napili mansion with a contentious history is on the market for just under $13 million. Marketed as a ‘Maui luxury vacation home that stands above the rest’, the home at 5385 Lower Honoapiilani Road with sweeping views of Napili Bay can sleep up to 24 people. But the MLS listing for the house carries an important disclaimer: ‘Buyer to do their own Due Diligence.’ It notes the 45-foot-tall house received an exemption for Special Management Area rules for eight bedrooms, not 12 as listed in county property records. That detail is indicative of a much larger story about the building’s history. West Maui resident Kanamu Balinbin had said publicly several times that he has personal knowledge of planning department officials accepting bribes in exchange for making problems go away for developers. He shared his allegations before the council’s Government Relations, Ethics and Transparency Committee, but an investigation never happened.”

Capital and Main in California. “In the midst of an ongoing housing emergency, the city of Los Angeles has struggled to keep rent-controlled housing, which includes some of the city’s most affordable dwelling units, from turning into short-term rentals. Even though a 2018 law prohibits such conversions, enforcement has been lax. ‘Except in a handful of cases, we’re not actually doing that enforcement work in a meaningful way,’ said Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and is working on recommendations to tighten enforcement. A mile from the beach, the Booking.com listing for a ‘Venice Beach Gem’ features mountain and ocean views and a tennis court. The city fined the Venice Beach units’ owner twice in 2021 for advertising short-term rentals without an official registration. The fines haven’t been paid, according to the city attorney’s website of administrative citations. Still, the units were listed on Booking.com last month.”

CBS Bay Area in California. “Some business owners in Oakland’s Jack London Square are fighting back against a plan to bring a homeless shelter into the area. They say business has been tough and fear a shelter would deter potential customers. The last year has presented challenges for Markus Supply Ace Hardware. Burglars came in through the roof to try to get into the safe. Customers’ cars have been broken into and, recently, a van parked on their lot was set on fire. A group of business owners gathered Thursday outside Jack London Inn, site of the proposed 110 room homeless shelter. Many say they are struggling to keep their doors open.”

“Former police chief LeRonne Armstrong organized the business owners. He claims the city wasn’t transparent with its plan to build a homeless shelter in the middle of a shopping and entertainment district. ‘We have to have a comprehensive strategy on how we’re going to address the homeless problem,’ Armstrong said. ‘There are several abandoned residential locations in the city of Oakland that could be converted to some type of transitional housing.'”

The Washington Examiner. “Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) vetoed a Democratic plan that would have given undocumented immigrants the right to to be eligible for state-funded loans for down payments on homes. He cited the lack of funding for the program in his letter announcing the veto to the California State Assembly. Democrats in both state chambers will now have the option to override Newsom’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote. Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle told Politico that Newsom did the right thing by vetoing the bill. But he passed on further praise, saying Newsom ‘read the tea leaves’ on the bill’s political impact. ‘He’s the master of gaslighting,’ Dahle said. ‘I mean, they’ve been doing it forever. I’ve been here 12 years, and all they do is politics.'”

Colorado Public Radio. “Immigration policies and border control were two of the main topics discussed Thursday at what was billed as a rally and conversation with Republican members of Congress and candidates. It was much more rally than conversation. The city of Aurora has been making national headlines for more than a week over allegations that members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, are preying on residents. Alicia Garcia questioned why local officials aren’t doing more to crack down in Aurora.”

“‘Honestly, I feel like there’s something behind the scenes that they don’t want us to understand. I think that the government has some benefit because I don’t understand why we have the National Guard, we have SWAT, we have all of these things happening and these resources here in Colorado and they’re doing nothing,’ Garcia said. Garcia, a staunch gun rights activist, says she doesn’t blame people for wanting to come to America, ‘but at the same time, you don’t get over on people by robbing, murdering, killing, and overthrowing innocent lives. And I think that’s where we have to have a hard stop. And I think that this needs to stop being a bipartisan issue.'”

The Print in India. “Dilbagh Singh’s IELTS coaching business in Faridkot, Punjab, began with a bang but ended with a whimper. He blames Canada for this. ‘We have completely collapsed,’ he said. Even a year ago, there was a clamour among aspirants going abroad to be tutored by him, but he would take no more than 30 students. The English language standardised test is a stepping stone to the Canadian dream. But this year, only 15 students signed up—and most of them dropped out of the course midway. Singh finally had to shut down his decade-old coaching centre, English Birds.”

“Nobody is flying to Canada in a hurry. Increasing tension between Canada and India, rising visa rejections, and a slew of immigration policies by the Justin Trudeau-led government to curb the inflow of migrants has soured the Punjab-Canada dream. Hundreds of businesses – from coaching centres to visa consultants and agents – have had to shut shop. On 24 January 2024, Canada dropped a bombshell by limiting its foreign student intake to 3.6 lakh— a sharp decrease of 35 per cent from 2023—in addition to capping undergraduate students in each province. Ottawa also declared that international students enrolled in private colleges offering licensed curriculum will not be eligible for work permits after completing their degrees, and revoked visas of the spouses of undergraduate students. Just last week, the Trudeau government announced that it is reversing its expansion of the low-wage temporary foreign worker programme. And the potential deportation of more than 70,000 students has set off alarm bells in Punjab.”

“The Canada bubble has soured. It’s now a saga of dreams deferred if not destroyed. Increasing visa rejections and the rising cost of living have had a role to play as well. ‘The cost of moving to Canada has increased from Rs 22-23 lakh to Rs 37 lakh since the revision in policies earlier this year. Students have simply dropped plans to study abroad now,’ Singh claimed. On the flip side, the ‘dunki’ route adopted by Indians to enter countries illegally is thriving. Since December 2023, more than 5,000 Indians illegally entered the United States from the Canadian border, exceeding the number of people who cross over to the country from the notorious Mexico border. The number of Indians seeking asylum ‘at port’ in the United Kingdom has also been sky-rocketing.”

From GZERO. “Canada has long been pro-immigration — so proudly so that harsh talk about limiting immigrant numbers has been a nonstarter for the public and politicians alike. That is changing. A recent Leger poll found that 65% of Canadians believe the government has set immigration targets too high and will admit “too many” immigrants under its current plan. More than 75% say the number of newcomers is raising the cost of housing and health care, at 78% and 76%, respectively. And a June poll by Research Co. found that 44% of Canadians viewed immigration negatively — a 6% increase from last October — with nearly half wanting fewer immigrants.”

“Now, thanks to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s aggressive immigration plan — with rates that have outpaced housing starts, doctor availability, and job growth — the decades-old consensus is starting to fray, and American politics and policy may exacerbate the matter. The government’s temporary foreign worker program, or TFW, which brings in non-permanent residents to work, has stirred controversy for depressing wages. This is adding more stress to the pro-immigration consensus as Canadians are worried about the country’s capacity to welcome newcomers while facing crises in health care, housing, and, in some cases, employment.”

Western Investor in Canada. “A wave of foreclosure opportunities has been working its way through the court system, with more to come as lenders finally enforce their claims against developers and investors. ‘What we’ve seen a lot is lenders holding off on forcing a sale; essentially they were just hoping the borrower would figure things out and the market would turn around,’ said Mark Goodman, president of Vancouver real estate brokerage Goodman Commercial Inc. A turnaround now appears to be taking shape, with a bottom in land prices having been reached following a 66 per cent decline in dollar volume last year, yet for many owners it’s too late. Moreover, the residential market has yet to recover its mojo. An initial surge of activity this spring has given listings a boost, keeping prices in check.”

“‘It’s just gone for too long, they’re in too far over their head and it’s getting flushed out,’ Goodman said of the predicament many land bankers have found themselves in. The current wave of foreclosures is notable because it’s not just speculators or novices affected. Developers with several projects under their belts have been caught out. ‘There are some developers who have successfully developed over the years that are stuck in this situation right now,’ said Dylan (Dilraj) Sohi, a senior vice-president with Colliers International in Surrey. ‘You have to continue to feed the debt out of your own pocket, and that tends to get expensive, especially in the interest-rate environment that we’re in,’ Sohi explained.”

Daily Mail Australia. “A building company has gone into liquidation after its chief executive was charged with allegedly headbutting a client who had complained about defective work – and then running him over with his ute. Geoff Calvert, the Canberra-based founder of Calvert Constructions, appeared in court in July charged with assault, furious driving and burglary. The 33-year-old builder’s run-in with a client at the front door of his house was captured on CCTV. A doorbell camera recorded him allegedly threatening the customer before headbutting him – after the client had confirmed to Mr Calvert he was being recorded – during a July 27 altercation. ‘I’m probably going to punch you in the face right now, c***,’ he allegedly said, before allegedly dragging the client by his leg through the front door during the altercation.”

The Courier Mail. “Aussies have piled on at their hilarious best to a query by someone on $100k a year over why people don’t ‘riot in the streets’ over the cost of housing. In a case of if you don’t laugh, you might cry, Aussies have responded with good humour to a query by a Reddit user on the forum asking ‘why don’t we riot?’ over high living and housing costs. ‘I’m your average Aussie on average 100k salary. I work my 9-5 pay $800 week rent for a crap 3×1 in a ‘previously low income suburb’. With the recent and continuous cost of living pressures lack of housing blah blah … Why don’t we riot in the streets at our governments like the Europeans do? I feel like we just accept fate and don’t retaliate.'”

“It is unlawful to intentionally or recklessly threaten violence or incite violence against another person in Australia, so the responses were uniquely Australian – that is, mostly tongue-in-cheek deflection. ‘We’re too lazy and the footy season is still on’ was upvoted by almost 700 people on the post. Many agreed. ‘Came here to say this… and the beer is cold. So we are parked on the lounge watching the footy. Take away the beer, the tv and the footy. then u might have a riot.’ Other Reddit users said ‘but when footy season ends it’s too hot to riot…’, ‘and the cricket is on …'”

From Bloomberg. “A quarter-century after the Petronas Twin Towers became the world’s tallest buildings and reshaped Kuala Lumpur’s skyline, Malaysia’s capital is continuing to add new skyscrapers despite growing doubts over the level of demand for property. Kuala Lumpur already has more supertall buildings than all but seven cities, and recently it’s added another — the 678.9m Merdeka 118, which will fully open to the public later this year. With a population of about 2 million in a city where many offices and homes sit empty, there are growing questions about the proliferation of skyscrapers in the Malaysian capital. But such construction is likely to continue, driven by a preference by many investors to chase returns in real estate, and developers and political leaders seeking to project national strength through building tall.”

“‘If the money rules, this is what happens,’ said Mustapha Kamal Zulkarnain, an architect who focuses on resilient cities. ‘We’re building as if nobody’s checking on the demand.’ Kuala Lumpur’s soaring population fuelled more high-rise construction, but demand for homes, in particular, came from ethnic Chinese Malaysians for whom real estate is a favoured store of wealth, said Cha-Ly Koh, founder of property data company UrbanMetry. Decades of rising prices helped cement that idea, leading some to buy multiple homes. Many now sit empty — one in five homes in Malaysia were unoccupied as of 2020, according to census data.”

“In recent years, prices have largely plateaued and owners unable to sell their apartments are finding themselves with underwater mortgages. And yet, new buildings keep coming up. ‘It’s a mystery even to me,’ said Carmelo Ferlito, chief executive officer of a Kuala Lumpur-based think tank of the continued construction despite the diminishing returns from real estate.”