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Wealthy and Foreign Investors Destroying the Future of Home Ownership
Young families in “safe” countries are falling further and further behind in securing home ownership.
In the realm of real estate, the dream of home ownership has long been a cornerstone of stability for a majority of Canadians. This dream is increasingly under threat due to a number of factors, including speculation, foreign buyers, and unchecked immigration. As housing become battlegrounds for investment rather than places to call home, low to middle-income residents are finding themselves priced out and disenfranchised.
Speculation, the practice of buying property with the aim of profiting from its expected future value increase, has become rampant in many countries. Investors, both domestic and international, are leveraging properties as assets in the game of real estate for profit. While this may seem innocuous on the surface, the consequences are dire for the low and middle-income residents.
As property prices are artificially inflated by speculation, homes become increasingly unaffordable for those seeking to buy them for shelter rather than profit.
My personal experience with the increasingly outrageous cost of a family home is as follows: My wife and I bought our first home as a young married couple in 1974 in an outer suburb of Vancouver…