Canada temporarily bans foreign purchases to alleviate national housing crisis
The Canada government is temporarily banning foreigners from buying houses to alleviate the housing crisis. Exceptions are made for home purchases by refugees and permanent residents of Canada.
The Canadian government announced this policy at the end of last month and began to apply it from that day. The policy will be implemented for two years and will not apply to vacation facilities such as summer houses, the government said.
The policy was proposed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during his 2021 campaign.
After winning the 2021 election, Prime Minister Trudeau and his party began to tighten housing demand, introducing taxes on non-permanent residents and vacant homes in major cities such as Vancouver and Toronto.
However, Canadian house prices, which had been skyrocketing, began to cool due to the central bank’s interest rate hike rather than such policies.
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association. The average home price fell from a peak of CAD 800,000 in early 2022 to just over CAD 630,000 last month.