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1. It’s time for a balanced approach to understanding home prices

   House prices in Canada’s most desirable urban areas remain persistently high, and for years, headlines and government policies have focused almost exclusively on the demand side of the equation. In particular, relatively small pockets of ...

2. If Toronto millennials want more density, there’s plenty of room to grow

   Last November, the Toronto Region Board of Trade published a survey of young professionals (aged 18 to 39) where respondents expressed overwhelming support for higher residential density as a way of boosting the housing supply. Indeed, ...

3. Toronto and Vancouver have plenty of room to grow up and grow more affordable

   Appeared in Maclean's, January 9, 2018 Headlines about housing affordability in Canada mainly concern two cities—Toronto and Vancouver. In both cities and their surrounding areas, rental vacancies hover at or below one per cent, and home prices ...

4. Why secondary suites matter to Calgary

   After years of debate, Calgary City Council has finally made progress on streamlining approvals for secondary suites (units within existing houses, such as basement suites). Council recently passed a motion allowing city staff to approve ...

5. Focus on foreign buyers overlooks source of most housing demand in Canada

   The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), partnering with Statistics Canada, recently released much-awaited data tracking the share of home ownership by non-residents (individuals whose principal dwelling is outside of Canada) ...

6. Regulating short-term rentals in Vancouver—a Band-Aid that ignores key driver of rental crunch

   Vancouver City Council recently voted to ban the listing of secondary residences on short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb. The hope is that this will make more units available for long-term renters. With a vacancy rate below 1 per ...

7. City of Vancouver (finally) acknowledges importance of housing supply

   The City of Vancouver recently unveiled its new 10-year housing strategy. Chief among its commitments is to see 72,000 new homes in the city by 2028, including an important boost in the rental stock, which has suffered from vacancy rates ...

8. Trudeau government’s new housing benefit seems to ignore regional differences

   As part of its National Housing Strategy, the Trudeau government announced today that it will directly subsidize low-income households with an average of $2,500 annually for housing costs. Details are pending, but the logic is simple: if ...

9. Dear Montreal, don’t lose your housing advantage

   In 2016, average rents in Montreal were $835 a month compared to $1,242 in Toronto and just under $1,300 in Vancouver. ...

10. Amazon HQ2—you can grow Vancouver’s economy without making housing less affordable

    The City of Vancouver is keen to land Amazon’s “HQ2”—a second North American headquarters, which the company claims will house tens of thousands of new jobs and add billions of dollars to the local economy. Indeed, HQ2 aligns with the ...