The solution is a wealth tax. It worked for the first 10,000 years of human civilization, after the 100 year failed experiment of income/sales tax it’s time to go back.

It's at the point where it's clear no single measure will solve this issue. What is absolutely infuriating is that NOTHING is being done. Actually scratch that, they are actively making things worse with crap like the "First Home Savings Account".

1. Scale property tax for number of properties owned. Double it per property owned.

i.e. own 2 homes, property tax for ALL homes owned doubles. Own 3 homes, pay 4x property tax. etc. Homes should not be hoarded. And corporations are definitely not exempt, except perhaps before first sale (i.e. they constructed the property) or demolition sale (buying multiple properties for demolition to be able to construct denser units)

2. Add or expand speculation tax (like the empty homes tax): it should be decently large, like at least 10% of the property's assessed value per year. However, it can be negated based on income tax paid by someone who lives at that location (as reported on their tax filing). There may need to be some additional reductions for retirees/seniors too.

Either way somebody's gotta live and work there to avoid the tax. No "students" owning multi-million dollar mansions.

Add a yearly tax that is tied to (federal reserve interest * house value) for anything other than primary residence and since people are corporations they would also be affected.

I think taxing investments would be simpler and make more sense. This is briefly mentioned at the end of the article.

Here's an easier solution: make real estate a poor investment by raising property taxes. It either works (great) or it doesn't (also great, because now the government has more money and more resources to build out infrastructure and housing).

So when is the next election? Looking forward to hearing the phrase "housing crisis" on repeat. Specifically the montage of various politicians saying the phrase over and over and over again that CBC, CTV, Global et al will each produce at least one of. Might this actually put the NDP on the map?

An interesting idea but I feel like there are too many loopholes. What about people who incorporate holding companies for their rentals? What about people who earn their income in their corporations, and can control if they are “low income” in the year they purchase a house? If there’s a lower earning spouse, can they be the ones to list it at whatever price? Canadian cities vary greatly with their real estate markets - will the cutoff price be decided in each city? Will the cutoff only be adjusted for inflation, or will it be adjusted based on market rates?

If there is tax planning to be had, the rich will find it!

I'm don't want to be that Debbie Downer, but this shit isn't getting solved any time soon. Even if more housing was built, the levels of immigration being thrown into the mix skews the numbers of available affordable housing.

There are many things that all levels of government could look at for examples outside of Canada, that could help fix the issues but they have 0 incentive to do anything.

I hate saying it, but if I were young, I would be doing whatever I could to get a work permit in a different country that understands how important housing is and start a life there.

We need to take a multi-tool approach to this crisis. This is a great idea, as well as increasing the supply of homes and removing impediments and red tape when it comes to housing construction, as well as public housing.