A populist policy that amounts to pissing into the wind. Canada's rising real estate prices has a simple cause: demand far outstrips supply. The demand isn't dr

A populist policy that amounts to pissing into the wind. Canada's rising real estate prices has a simple cause: demand far outstrips supply. The demand isn't driven by foreign investors. It's driven by a 1.1% annual population growth rate, the majority of which is immigration. I am one of these migrants. Canada's immigration system recruits high-skilled workers and many of the fast track programmes require that you demonstrate a minimum proof of funds in the tens of thousands of dollars (multiples of the average Canadian's liquid savings). High-skilled workers aren't moving to Canada to live in the abundant land of northern Manitoba. They're moving here to live in areas with relatively high opportunity: Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal if they speak French. Housing demand is concentrated in those areas and surrounding regions. There isn't a matching desire to build homes at a pace that outstrips immigration. Interestingly, total number of dwellings in Canada has grown by ~1% annually over the last 5 years. On the surface, that looks to match the immigration rate (1.1%), but both those numbers are for the whole of Canada. The majority of immigrants move to one of the main cities, whereas new homes are much more geographically spread. TL;DR: increase homes or decrease people, everything else is pointless.