Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Trudeau is 100% to blame for housing right now. You can't increase immigration and keep the housing supply the same without housing prices going up. I'm all for immigration, but you have to have a plan to accommodate growing populations.
|
Immigration numbers as a % of the population have basically been dead flat for the last 30 years at just over 1% of the population per year. That will likely go up in the coming years, but that hasn't had an impact on housing prices yet.
And there have been ~200K housing starts per year for the last decade, so with the average Canadian household size of 2.9 people, that should be enough housing for almost 600K additional people every year, well above the rate of population growth of 300-350K per year over the last several years.
Sale prices have gone up so fast primarily because of exceptionally low interest rates that were maintained far too long, and because people are having to compete more with investors for purchases than they did in the past. About 1/3rd of new supply in most Canadian cities is ending up in the hands of investors, and in the hottest markets its even higher (nearly 50% of the units completed in the last 5 years in BC are investor-owned).