As Canada's population growth slows, an economic shift emerges (toronto.citynews.ca)

submitted 1 day ago by sbv@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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One of the clearest effects of slowing population growth has been in real estate on the rental market, said Shelly Kaushik, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, in an interview.

Newcomers, such as temporary foreign workers and international students, show up in very specific areas of the economy, she explained, and this is one of them.

“One of the fastest effects we’ve seen is deceleration in rental prices across the country, but especially in places like Ontario and (British Columbia), where there is and was certainly a larger share of international students coming into the country,” she said.

...

A drop in demand for rental units has also begun trickling into the overall housing market.

Smaller properties, such as condos, are now seeing a glut of inventory of new builds, but there are hardly any buyers, because renting out the units is a riskier proposition than it was a few years ago.

...

There has also been a slowdown in investor activity in the housing market, which would be a drag on home building this year, he said.

“You’re getting this period of a real stagnation in the housing market through this year and into next year, in part driven by population,” Ercolao said.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. last month reported the agency’s six-month moving average for annual starts declined 3.5 per cent for the fourth consecutive month.

But the effects of slowing population growth haven’t been the same across all housing types.

“Detached (housing) market isn’t seeing as much of an effect since a very small share of newcomers to Canada aren’t really engaged in that part of the market,” Ercolao said.

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[-] non_burglar@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

from the 1950s to 1990s

I'm going to guess you are a young person? Those years encompass policies that were absolutely abysmal for Canadian housing. Political embroilments with the USA's foreign policies in the 70s cut back on housing initiatives, severe economic belt-tightening in the 80s, backlash against immigration in the late 50s and well into the 60s. The CMHC itself was founded on ignoring the Curtis report in 1941 and giving most control of housing provision to the private sector instead of focussing on low- to middle- income housing.

If you're going to be interested in housing history in Canada, you should look at the complete picture. Free market pressure created this situation, policy only followed it.

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 hours ago

I'd love to read more about it, can you point me at a link? Most of what I've read has been from Wikipedia, which suggests that federal and provincial governments made an effort to build housing, and, at various times, reduce the cost of housing, and promote home ownership.

[-] non_burglar@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

From the wikipedia article on the cmhc:

Evidently, rather than focus on low-income housing, the federal government instead initiated a post-war program between 1944 and 1945 that promoted home ownership and private enterprise.

We've been fighting this struggle on private vs public housing for a long time, and it is simply because we kept in step with the way our southern neighbours do things.

Now, I want to be clear that I support socially irresponsible, state-sponsored housing, and I do think we've been lucky in Canada to benefit from a pretty good system overall. I am a to believer that Finland is going things correctly by addressing housing head-on.

I just commented because I don't want ppl to think that "the good old days" in Canada were perfect.