In recent years, Canadians have increasingly seen financial firms — such as private equity firms and real estate investment trusts (REITs) — buying up apartment buildings. The largest 25 financial landlords in Canada hold nearly 20 per cent of the country’s private, purpose-built rental stock.
At the same time, Canada’s housing affordability crisis has exploded. A 2022 report found that in 93 per cent of Canadian neighbourhoods, a full-time minimum wage worker cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment.
Many observers have connected this financialization of housing to rising unaffordability. But until recently, a lack of data has made it challenging to prove it.
Our recent study, based on building-level rent and ownership data in the Greater Toronto Area, is the first to decisively show that financial firms charge higher rents and raise them more quickly than other landlords. We also found that financial firms raise rents most aggressively in lower-income areas with more racialized residents.
Empty home taxes should increase exponentially the longer the home is unoccupied
Is any party pitching an increase in this tax?
Name and shame these 25 landlords ploz
REITs shouldn’t exist and they should be illegal. Public companies shouldn’t be allowed to own property.
These are the companies that should be taxed to oblivion. Housing should be a necessity and not a commodities.
I agree. They should also make phone/internet a utility. I’m kind of shocked they haven’t yet.
REITs and private equity firms should be immediately made illegal. They only exist to squeeze asuxh money out of as much people and property as possible to make as much money as possible for a few shareholders, the rest can suffer
REITs are fine, but they do need strong regulation. They’re best when targeted at building high density housing, but can be used to develop single family suburbs.
The key is that you have to time limit their ownership of single family homes, and require the sale to individuals. That forces them to build and sell, they make money, the market expands, houses stay affordable. For high density buildings they have to be limited to a portion of the area market, including all corporate owners. Which again forces them to build and sell, and also keeps competition in the market, to avoid price fixing.
The new housing minister says prices should not fall, and they are still increasing immigration faster than housing completions. So we likely get the same as Trudeau, whose first year saw a large increase in immigration and housing prices.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SozqexLpyXE
Then the same capital shallowing Caroline Rogers warned about when she talks about alarm level productivity growth.
Increasing market concentration is because immigrants. Got it. 🙄
Increased immigration is part of the problem, yes. But not the only source.
What is “the problem”? Do immigrants own the largest 25 financial landlords in Canada holding nearly 20 per cent of the country’s private, purpose-built rental stock?
No. But the added pressure means there’s more demand for housing. Meaning landlords can jack up prices further.
BTW, not saying the immigrants themselves are the problem. Rather the high immigration levels set the by the federal government. Immigrants are victims in all of this.
There is nothing wrong with “demand”. It is essential to economic growth. Market forces, and governments are the ones failing here.
Yeah, I’m sorry. But we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. I mean, you’re not wrong. But I also believe that what I’m saying is true.
Immigration is a factor. Governments (note the S) lack of planning and strategy around it, leaving it to the invisible hand of “market forces” hasn’t worked. Even without immigration social trends alone would have dictated higher housing demand as more people are staying single or getting divorced and living on their own. This era of artificially low interest rates and being awash in excessive liquidity for prolonged periods due to various “financial” crises is a much bigger factor in this by creating this prolonged housing bubble. Housing shortages aren’t just local. It’s global. The world’s population has always been growing. There’s always been immigration. The reason we have governments is properly manage and plan for these things. It’s been a failure at every single level - local, municipal, provincial, and federal.
Economic growth per capita is good. Economic growth via mass immigration, when we are second last in per capita GDP growth of the 38 countries of the OECD since 2015, is bad.
Luxembourg is not even a real country, we may as well be last.
Is there something wrong with the statistics, I’d be curious how dramatically increasing immigration into an existing housing shortage wouldn’t lead to further shortages.
Do you mind elaborating how that would be possible without dramatically increasing the speed of construction beforehand by increasing infrastructure, reducing red tape, lowering development taxes, and increasing zoning density?
Nope. This is just an attempt to muddy the waters and redirect the conversation to something else. The article is about market concentration in housing.
So we likely get the same as Trudeau,
I told you so. (Not you personally, but the community)