[andrewstuart]

Yeah I watch with pity our Commonwealth cousins in Canada - terrible in Australia, worse in Canada.

The thing is - why?

Politicians want "economic growth" at literally any price.

And seemingly, the population of Canada (and Australia) want this too - the politicians keep getting voted back in. Though I must say here in Australia the current government at no point gave "unconstrained population growth" as one of its policies - and an election is coming - we'll find out then if people care or not.

The Australian government made a big announcement in December that it would be cutting back population growth perhaps because so many people are angry about it. And yet last month we had the largest population growth in 70 years announced - apparently the government has nothing at all to stop the additional 2,000 people a day arriving.

Australia is in its worst housing crisis in its history, and at the same time there is no restriction at all on foreigners buying Australian housing, real estate is exempt from international money laundering laws - making Australian real estate one of the top places to put your criminal money from Russia or China or Burma or whatever, the government pays tax benefits to property investors so young people cannot buy, houses are being converted into AirBNB tourism accommodation. And still the government fails to act on any of this - the cynical might wonder if all these things driving up house prices is in fact enjoyed and loved and making the landlord politicians happy.

[kredd]

I'm not sure how it's in Australia, but here in Canada, majority of people own their homes. It's not in their best interest to let the housing to depreciate heavily, so they'll go through anything other than letting it burst like in Japan. It also doesn't help when we're not really a manufacturing giant like them, where we could support our economy.

I also know people whose parents' entire retirement plan is just downsizing and using the extra cash to supplement their social benefits. So yeah, kicking the can down the road, hoping some bigger economies figure out a way out of this problem, so we'll just follow along.

And I'm saying this as a renter, who is just in the sidelines with no real desire to buy as of now.

[timbit42]

One reason is that the Baby Boomer generation is nearly 100% retired now and no longer making big money and paying big income and sales taxes. This means government revenues are down, right at the same time that the Baby Boomers will begin heavily leaning on public services, particularly healthcare. Immigration brings workers, who are young enough to not need much healthcare, to replace the Baby Boomers and increases government income and sales tax revenue. It's like a Ponzi scheme they are trying to keep from collapsing. As the Baby Boomers pass on, their homes will become available for younger generations to live in.