FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance, today released a statement on Canada’s housing inflation following the release of statistics by the Canadian Real Estate Association:

“On the day the House of Commons Finance Committee is scheduled to launch its investigation into housing inflation, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Canada’s price gains smashed records to end 2021. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, Canadian home prices increased a staggering 26.6 per cent in one year, from December 2020 to December 2021.

“When Justin Trudeau took power, the typical home cost $434,500 versus the present $811,700—over 85 per cent inflation in six years, while the real incomes used to buy homes have been flat. Last year, house prices rose a quarter, which the Canadian Real Estate Association’s chief economist called “the biggest gain of all time.” The record annual gain followed the $400 billion of newly-created cash government pumped into financial markets since 2020, much of it lent out in risky variable-rate mortgages at interest rates well below inflation. These negative real rates literally pay people to borrow.

“Housing inflation is a home-grown problem. Bloomberg reports Canada has the second most inflated housing bubble in the world. It now takes over 60 per cent of pre-tax income for the average family to pay the monthly costs on average homes in Toronto and Vancouver, which Demographia calculates are the world’s 5th and 2nd most unaffordable housing markets.
Housing inflation a federal problem: banking rules, mortgage insurance, monetary policy, policing money laundering are all federal.

“Housing prices are ballooning. Here and now. Under this government. That’s #JustinFlation.”

 

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