Comments by "shazmosushi" (@shazmosushi) on "Chinese Money Laundering and Global Real Estate" video.

Of course we should do everything we can to stop money laundering -- especially around drug trafficking and human trafficking -- but whatever fraction of China's mass capital flight that's legitimate should definitely considered foreign direct investment and carefully handled, because anybody with a large amount of money within China understandably wants to get their money out of China as soon as possible. Australia's relatively recent regulations are pretty smart: We have no restrictions on foreigners purchasing new buildings. If you buy a vacant plot of land you must build a dwelling within 4 years (you can't just buy it and hold it). You can only buy and demolish an existing dwelling if you build more buildings than were previously there. Finally, real-estate investment no longer contributes to gaining citizenship. All these things are good because they encourage increasing the housing supply which means housing is more affordable. I know that some places (I believe Vancouver and maybe London) tax empty houses and apartments which should encourage them to be placed on the rental market instead of the cultural preference of leaving the home unoccupied. (Side note: China itself has a massive problem with unproductive ghost cities, so other countries need to be smarter than the CCP in combating this with smart policy). Finally, I should note that after decades of giving permanent residency and citizenship to people with strong Chinese Communist Party viewpoints and associations, Australia has developed massive issues around Chinese Communist Party-linked political corruption, infiltration and bribery (eg, Huang Xiangmo and his family), but that's a separate issue.
22