VANCOUVER (CU)_In late-August, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to introduce a two-year ban on foreign home buyers if he is re-elected for a second term at the twentieth-September election. “You shouldn’t lose a bidding war on your home to speculators. It’s time for things to change,” the Liberal leader said during a campaign event in Hamilton, Ontario. Not long after, the Prime Minister’s biggest rival in the election, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, also introduced a similar plan, as the housing crisis takes centre stage at in the campaigns leading up to the federal election next week.
These proposed plans, made by the two major political leaders in the country, build upon the 2016 and 2017 provincial taxes imposed on foreign homebuyers in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, two of the hottest housing markets in the country. Over the past few years, experts have long debated whether these policies have in fact addressed the crisis, which has now extended to regions beyond Vancouver and Toronto.
Accordingly, the recent pledges made by the Liberals and Conservatives have also attracted widespread…
