SPECULATION BY CANADIAN'S, 'ABSOLUTELY', PLAYING A ROLE IN RED HOT HOME PRICES.

By Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada: Speculation by Canadians investing in the real estate market is “absolutely” one of the factors contributing to sky-high home prices, says one economist studying housing trends.

The federal Liberals made housing unaffordability a central plank in their 2021 campaign platform and in the months since, have touted the promises made in the campaign and the recent budget that they say will help to ease the crunch.

Those measures include banning most foreign buyers for two years and imposing higher taxes on people who flip properties within 12 months of buying them — part of growing efforts to target the financialization of the Canadian housing market.

Bank of Canada data from December 2021 showed investors — what it defined as “mainly domestic buyers” — outpaced first-time homebuyers during the COVID-19 pandemic. And last week, Statistics Canada warned multiple property buyers are “constraining” already tight supplies in urban markets.