As a recent immigrant to Canada it sort of terrifies me how irrational the market is. That said, I'm buying a house. I moved from Seattle and it is utterly bizarre to me that housing in Vancouver is more expensive than Seattle, while also offering significantly lower pay.
My hot take is that most of the rulemakers (politicians), are property owners, and are unwilling to take the drastic steps needed to put the brakes on.
My solution is to take drastic steps to increase supply. The empty homes tax in Vancouver was a good step for rentals, but I think it should be punishingly high since I suspect that cheating is rampant. I also think that the permitting and building process should be inverted; any project that follows zoning rules should allowed by default, and it shouldn't take months or years to get permitting approved.
If I'm allowed to go hog-wild I also think that anyone that supports historic 'character' neighborhoods should have to live the full historic lifestyle. If you fight density on 'historic' grounds you should also be forced to sell your price for the 'historic' price, use 'historic' appliances, and earn 'historic' pay.
My hot take is that most of the rulemakers (politicians), are property owners, and are unwilling to take the drastic steps needed to put the brakes on.
My solution is to take drastic steps to increase supply. The empty homes tax in Vancouver was a good step for rentals, but I think it should be punishingly high since I suspect that cheating is rampant. I also think that the permitting and building process should be inverted; any project that follows zoning rules should allowed by default, and it shouldn't take months or years to get permitting approved.
If I'm allowed to go hog-wild I also think that anyone that supports historic 'character' neighborhoods should have to live the full historic lifestyle. If you fight density on 'historic' grounds you should also be forced to sell your price for the 'historic' price, use 'historic' appliances, and earn 'historic' pay.