A Solution for Housing Shortages

I feel like I have to keep repeating this phrase over and over again, hoping (probably foolishly) that someone, somewhere will pay attention: building a million new homes in Canada will only perpetuate our shortage.

The ‘laws’ of supply and demand don’t work when new homes are scooped up by pensions, private venture companies and other organizations that leverage Canada’s relatively stable housing market as a great way to park billions of dollars per year.

Building a million new homes will NOT have a significant influence on the price and availability of homes for purchase by average Canadians.

Also, this is a GLOBAL issue. Pinning the blame on any single person is pure idiocy (I’m looking at you, PP).

In the United States, new legislation has been proposed that will remove Wall Street from Main Street, at least when it comes to housing.

Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill in both houses of Congress on Tuesday to ban hedge funds from buying and owning single-family homes in the United States.

The bill would require hedge funds, defined as corporations, partnerships or real estate investment trusts that manage funds pooled from investors, to sell off all the single-family homes they own over a 10-year period, and eventually prohibit such companies from owning any single-family homes at all. During the decade-long phaseout period, the bill would impose stiff tax penalties, with the proceeds reserved for down-payment assistance for individuals looking to buy homes from corporate owners.

If signed into law, the legislation, called the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023, could upend a growing sector of the housing market, and potentially increase the supply of single-family homes available for individual buyers. Homeownership, long a cornerstone of generational wealth in the United States, is increasingly out of reach for Americans as home prices and interest rates soar.

How soon can we get this in Canada so we stop plowing over habitats and farmland for McMansions that no one can afford?