a temporary ban on foreign buyers attracted mixed responses, with certain experts warning that these policy reforms could backfire. They pointed out that while there are foreign citizens buying property in Canada, there are also a whole lot of Canadians that buy property overseas, particularly in the United States, which leaves room for foreign governments to respond in a similar manner.
Nevertheless, this plan to alleviate the housing affordability crunch faced by residents has received the support of Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen, who said housing should be for Canadians to live in, not passive foreign investment. According to the Minister, from 1st January, a tax of 1 per cent will be levied on foreign-owned vacant or underused real estate, while the government is also working hard to get other taxes, such as an anti-flipping tax, in place. “This will enable us to reduce the speculative demand in the marketplace. It’ll help cool excessive price growth,” he said.
Minister Hussen also endorsed the implementation of density measures across Canadians cities, like those recently rolled out in New Zealand, which allows up to three homes to be built on most single-family lots. “I support that,” he said. “Any measure that increases the housing supply, that intensifies the use of land, that builds more housing and that frees up more housing on the same amount of land, is a good thing.”
A typical home in Canada now costs about CA$780,400 (US$603,791), which is a 25.3 per cent increase from a year earlier, and an 81.4 per cent hike since November 2015, when PM Trudeau took power.
