It is definitely still happening here in Canada, as you described. we have friends renting basements suites, while mainland China owner has the mainhouse as an owner/" resident", but have not actually lived in their home for two years. some homes are just totally vacant with weeds growing up through the entrances. Vancouver added a foreighn buyer tax to slow this down, but it hasn't stopped it, and vacancy tax does nothing because the offshore owner just has a friend or property management company deal with the mailed letters and fake the reporting