While Toronto does need to cut back on development regulations, we've been developing like crazy. A good deal of speculative money had pumped housing prices abo

While Toronto does need to cut back on development regulations, we've been developing like crazy. A good deal of speculative money had pumped housing prices above what most people can afford in a very short period of time. AirBnB is part of that problem. In Toronto they estimate you need to make ~130k / yr to afford a home (any home). Bear in mind that a software dev in Toronto makes ~80k / yr. Up until very recently, our lower wages matched a lower cost of living in the city, but this has been blown up by things like foreign investment, and locals taking out a line of credit on their main home to put a down payment on income generating properties. No other sector in Toronto has seen price inflation like this, it's only been housing. The problem with the deregulation thesis is that you now have to compete with a lot more people for resources. In the housing case, you now are competing with people who live in completely different economies or have substantial economic advantage over you. As an example, a Toronto home is extremely inexpensive to a bay area software dev making ~150k / yr (CAD ~200k). As a side hustle, this might seem like a good investment, and locals simply can't compete. (I realise bay area rent is insane and this isn't likely fair without taking bay area cost of living into account, I just wanted to use a relevant example).