Douglas Todd: Canada’s distorted housing market calls for more than ‘cranes on the skyline,’ given that investors now own one in three homes. There are other ways.
This week three of four Canadians declared they have no confidence in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ideas for solving the country’s housing affordability crisis.
Like most premiers and mayors, Carney is promising to “build, baby, build” to stimulate a record amount of housing construction. But Angus Reid Institute polling suggests the public is more than skeptical, perhaps in despair.
While voters understandably get lost in the complexities of solving a house-price catastrophe that sees average prices at a ridiculous $1.2 million in Greater Vancouver and $1.1 million in Toronto, at least one veteran housing analyst is making a clear and devastating case that Canada’s dilemma is being significantly fanned by a wave of investors.
