Toronto Renters Forum

Since the housing market’s peak last February, home prices in Canada have fallen 23 per cent. But for the average Canadian household, rising interest rates have made housing affordability continue to worsen, nevertheless. The problem, of course, is gravely serious – it wastes our capital, discourages the young from starting families, and seeds resentment among those excluded from home ownership. As with other existential threats, such as climate change, Canadians must make the necessary sacrifices to meet the challenge.

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Between 2016 and 2021 the Greater Toronto Area’s supply of private dwellings outpaced population growth by more than 50 per cent. And yet the cost of housing continued its incredible climb, with the average house selling for 64 per cent more in the same period, compared with only 12-per-cent inflation.

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As the British thinker Sir Roger Scruton observed, conservatives must sometimes set their free-market instincts aside in pursuit of greater cultural goals. In fact, all of us, regardless of political inclinations, must remember that our land is a fundamental aspect of our national identity, and like human life, it cannot simply be subjected to the cold mechanics of an untethered supply and demand system.