OttawaB次元官网网址檚 subsidies program marketed to the public today as a means for young people to buy houses at todayB次元官网网址檚 ridiculously inflated prices is in fact a set of pass-through subsidies to holders wishing to sell properties at the rarefied height of todayB次元官网网址檚 house market.
This is the case because not only will these subsidies not reduce house prices, but by pumping cash into buyersB次元官网网址� hands, they will support the unsustainably high house prices that have resulted from financializing housing in Canada.
When so few people can afford to buy a house, a better plan is, first, to exclude every category of investor B次元官网网址� from hedge funds to REITs to small independent rental market predators B次元官网网址� from the housing market to prevent any more houses being rented at exorbitant rates.
Prices will therefore come down. Why? Because the supply of potential buyers sufficiently flush to pay the going rate for a house not meeting the demand of sellers looking to make a killing on the properties they hold will force those sellers to take a haircut.
Ottawa needs to understand that its function when it comes to housing is not to maximize the economic rents property holders get to extract from CanadaB次元官网网址檚 wealth-creating sectors but to house Canadians at prices in line with the productivity of CanadaB次元官网网址檚 real economy.
Bill Appledorf
Victoria
