Reconnecting the Housing Market to the Labour Market: Foreign Ownership and Housing Affordability in Urban Canada

Toronto and Vancouver have been struggling with intense housing affordability problems in recent years. This article looks at one important factor in these affordability challenges: foreign ownership. Foreign ownership helps decouple the housing market from the labour market, pushing market prices for prized forms of housing beyond what local incomes can afford. The author investigates the role played by foreign ownership in the recent housing crises in Toronto and Vancouver before presenting a few possible policy approaches to address this dynamic. He concludes that some means of continuously taxing foreign ownership at a steep rate is needed in core urban regions of the country. Foreign buyer taxes and the Speculation and Vacancy Tax in British Columbia are evaluated in that context.