" we need to upend our fundamental and flawed assumptions about how housing works. Because right now, we’re just building on top of them."
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Over the past 20 years, Toronto and Vancouver – two of Canada’s three most populous cities – have built 400,000 homes between them. That’s an enviable number for any city in North America seeking to increase supply, a reliable tactic for relieving a housing crisis.
But for its efforts, Toronto and Vancouver continue to top international rankings of unaffordable cities. That highlights a cold reality: We cannot build our way out of this affordability crisis.
We’re not alone. In cities such as Cairo, Sydney and New York, real estate has become hyper-commodified. Housing is now seen as a matter of selling, not dwelling, as made plain by Wall Street’s growing interest in the business of housing. And as a result, people cannot afford shelter – even though a significant number of housing units in those very same cities remain wholly unoccupied.
The fundamentals of Canada’s housing system are broken. And while there is a way forward that’s within reach, it will require us to reject many tightly held 21st-century assumptions about the housing economy.
Canada At Risk As 'First Cracks' Appear In Global Housing Bubbles: UBS
House prices are now falling in half of the cities that have the highest risk of a bubble burst, Swiss bank says.
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HOUSING BUBBLES - MASSIVE UNPRECEDENTED DEPRESSION LOOMS
