Huge problem with housing costs in the Anglosphere is housing is an investment asset not a place to live. REITs. Over the last 15 years, maybe more, a massive amount of money has been invested in housing for profit. Very little money has been invested in economic productivity such that the OECD says Canada's economic development will be DEAD LAST for the next 30 YEARS!
Vancouver built tons of Condos but most only sold to overseas buyers. Locals didn't even get a chance. Those overseas buyers were mostly Chinese investors looking to park their money away from the hands of the Chinese govt and as an escape pad. Then there's "Mom n Pop" investors. Over 50% of Conservative Federal MPs are landlords.
If you increase supply investors will just buy them up. There's nothing to stop them. (Yeah, Trudeau did introduce some tax and restrictions that will slow it down a little).
Another problem, that CNBC covered recently and I'm sure it applies to Canada as well, is the number of Builders themselves have been getting more and more concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. These large Development Companies can sit on land to help force up the price of land for them to make a bigger profit margin.
There isn't a huge pool of available buyers, at these prices, unless you're including investors. Most banks will not lend to ordinary people because of the cost of housing relative to income and interest rates. The mortgage climate has changed.
And how many Builders can get financing to build? Except for the big players, who don't have a financial incentive to build like my in order to bring the price of housing down, no one can get financing. These are cautionary times.
Then there is the threat of AI taking a lot of jobs. Are the banks going to be keen to lend out money to Builders and mortgage holders in these uncertain economic times.
The only solution that I see working is the government building massive amounts of housing like they did after WW2. But that isn't going to happen for political reasons and financial (high govt debts already).
If I was a young person I'd learn Spanish and move to Mexico. That's were the jobs will be. USA is replacing China with Mexico as their industrial hub. Don't know what the wages and working conditions would be like though. There's always the USA to consider as well but it has huge housing problems too (but does have more available cheaper markets compared to Canada).
Canada is done. It's finished.