Trudeau Says Home Prices Must Remain High 

Housing needs to crash; an over valued housing market is a drag on the real economy as idle speculation replaces production of useful goods.

This is so insane that JT has said they are trying to keep one asset class up over another. The government has not guaranteed my stock and bond portfolio. These guys will suffer the consequences of what they have grown.

Trudeau needs to go..I was a Liberal voter.... Not anymore!

Super refreshing and glad to hear your position on this. Very well spoken. Their new policy regarding caregivers being given PR and lowering the English requirements definitely shows their intention to keep prices up. The side consequences are huge: wage suppression, essentially creating a slave class. Now that it’s in-sourced, the chances of Canadians being caught in it are quite high. It's a little depressing that these people in power seem to be so morally bankrupt.

Trudeau out

Been in Canada for 9 years, and I've been getting more and more disappointed. On top of the housing crisis, in 15 to 20 years we're going to have a retirement crisis, people who are paying crazy rents and can't save up for later. The pension from government is just not enough, and these people will be paying rent forever. Now we have wealthy boomers, who are pretty happy with the country, it's pretty much possible we're going to have many seniors in a complicated situation.

When Trudeau says Canadians should choose what kind of society we wish to live in he's talking communism.

Great commentary, John - it's delightful to hear you say that tenants are treated like second-class citizens in Canada - so true! I think it's a bit disingenuous to paint this as a generational issue, though. I know that thinking along those lines does help us appreciate how much things have changed over the generations --- but it obscures what's really going on: landowners are being systematically privileged and tenants are being systematically disadvantaged and exploited. Many young people will soon inherit or be gifted wealth, much of it housing wealth. Many elderly tenants have been driven into homelessness by no-fault evictions. This is fundamentally a landowner-tenant issue, not a generational issue. Tenants of all generations are being screwed, and landowners of all generations are benefiting.

This is a Real Estate crash.... very simply because there is no other way out of this one having built up a debasement based "store" of inflation in Banking/Financial system "assets".... those so-called "Assets" ? being no more than the DEBT obligations now not only unsustainable by GDP/GDI incomes unsupported in future economic capacity deficits.... but indeed pegged to completely distorted 'valuations' of Asset Chattels underpinning the wider Canadian Banking/Financial system currently 'extending and pretending' to sustain entitlements/m2/pensions/REIT's and on and on. No way out of this one but haircuts all around.... and unfortunately our 'idi*t in chief' PM has no clue beyond attempting to tell people what they wanna hear as a former substitute drama teacher.

I think rental properties should be treated as businesses. Commercial mortgages, commercial taxes, it's a business so why not?

Steve Saretsky said it best, “he said the quiet part out loud”.

Young people will never buy a house or retire at this rate

Everyday, Canadians pray Trudeau calls an election to stop the reign of terror!

Thanks John for addressing the squatter landlords and speculators of family homes. We need to start incentivizing investments in productive assets and labour. Wealth hoarding in family homes should be disincentivized, it's unproductive, it hurts regular Canadians.

People can't afford to make repairs to their homes right now. We need a housing crash, so an economy can grow again. !!

What an honest and accurate description of the problem. Thank you. I just bought my first home and it was very difficult. Home prices need to go down if we want a healthy society. Most home owners know that but greed is so powerful.

Exactly the prices will stay stupidly flat so no longer interesting. Best solution : leave this country asap to regain your freedom and good quality of life at affordable prices. And take your money with you (if you can because Canadian banks are blocking you !!!

Excellent points John! It’s never been more evident that supply-oriented policies will fall increasingly short unless our leaders display the true mark of leadership, which is putting self and partisan interest behind those of the majority of constituents and finally addressing the demand side through thoughtful, strategic policy making, of which you’ve laid some very interesting foundations. It’s the only way to rid ourselves of this hyper-dependency on interest rates to fix or fuck everything up. I’m so tired of our BS, coward and self-serving leaders today. More concerned with saving face and keeping power than actually doing the right things.

Gouvernement (any party not just JT) is basically saying do not invest in anything else but real estate and you will be able to retire. 😂 what a joke.

I moved to the UK 🇬🇧 due to the housing market crisis in Canada now live better lifestyle than in Canada

Thank you for caring and sharing your passion on this topic. To me it's a shell game and making the future generations overpay. My brother-in-law is American, but they live in London, Ontario. I told him to keep his US citizenship so that in the future my nephew and niece will have options as clearly, not everyone is going to be a top 5% income earner.

Man you’re spot on. Question is do we care about our kids?

No builder is going to build without making a profit.

What a great analysis!

Trudeau also said that home owners should not expect prices continue to grow at this level. High house price is a global problem. Thus, based on your argument, governments globally are artificially inflating house prices high. The root of high house prices is the investor class. Developers have been building to cater to this category,. So, we have condos that are not suitable for families. There are houses built in the Niagara region that home owners wouldn't buy because they were built for investors to rent out. The latest federal budget is a good thing then. It disincentivizes corporate investment in housing. The market is not going to create affordable housing. Affordable housing will have to emerge from the government building them. The government focuses on building affordable housing - for people to live in. Let the private sector build for investors. There are many ways to do the former like affordable housing is a long-term leasehold, say 99 years. Public land used for housing should always remain public and the leasehold affordable houses maintains that. Also, putting a minimum occupancy requirement of 10 years before the affordable housing can be sold. These rules will make these affordable houses less attractive for the investor class. There are growing numbers of house builders who are facing financial distress and are on the verge of closing jobs. They can be hired by the government to build the affordable houses. They won't be paid a princely sum but sufficient to keep them afloat. Finally, why are you expecting the federal government to tackle the housing crisis when housing is strictly a provincial jurisdiction? The federal government has to step in because Canadians blame the federal government for everything even when the provinces are supposedly in chage charge. The provinces will take credit but stay quiet to let the federal government to take the flaks. We may want to relook at our system of governance when most Canadians don't know which level of government is in charge; if we hate the federal government so much, then let just do away with them. Let the provinces run the show. The current two equal levels of government with different areas of control is beyond the comprehension of most Canadians.

Thanks for speaking out on this 🙏. Need more voices in your industry touching on this

Let’s see what happens when a recession hits. This market has not seen a recession since 1989. Let’s see what happens when that goes on. I think you will see things go on you would never imagine.

When I came as an international student many years ago, I could not find a single decent place to rent in Toronto, nothing and of course,, candians don't trust you when you come from somewhere else. I ended up in a bed and breakfast, not the first two I visited, that were full of drug users smoking pots all day. I got scared and went to Etobicoke, happy someone owner would take me in for a month. Then I continue my search for long term, nothing. So I decided to buy my own condo which, at the time, was much easier than getting frustrated and rejected at ugly rental places. It was such a relief to have my own place. Some other international students were less fortunate and had to go to Lawrence west, far away from college. But what were people in my case supposed to do ? Live in a dump at outrageous rents. Then of course, people like me were the problem because we were 'taking accommodations away from Canadians and so on...'. just because we were foreigners. So much discrimination and xenophobia in Canada. I didn't expect that at all. Well, at least, that's not what they sell you but it's all fake, and all illusions. In the end, nothing tangible, nothing worthwhile for all this trouble. So was it worth it ? NO.

YOUR BEST VIDEO EVER...I WOULD VOTE FOR YOU !!! SAD HOW SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE NO FUTURE. HOUSING SHOULD NOT BE AN INVESTMENT CLASS

Wonderfully informative, as always, but very sad. Politicians are certainly not planning to create opportunities for private ownership of homes. Too many of them in the real estate business.

Housing always on a trajectory to increase in value will always be the backbone of what makes Canada worth coming to/investing in. Why would anyone want to invest in an unstable market. Its better to always make it worth investing in but rather only the select few will be able to do so.

The good news is that despite what he thinks housing is crashing in Toronto and Vancouver

The value of the housing market in Canada is complex, and a crash would affect everyone, not just homeowners. Such an event would significantly impact banks and influence how cities are managed, given that a large portion of municipal budgets is derived from property taxes. For example, a $600K house typically incurs about $6K in property taxes annually, while a property valued at one million dollars would pay around $10K. If property values decline, the taxes collected on these properties would consequently decrease, reducing the budget for city infrastructure, garbage collection, and other services. Homeowners residing in their only property might welcome lower property values-if they're not planning to sell-because it would mean paying substantially less in taxes. However, this could be problematic for others when city budgets are already tight. Toronto, for example, considered implementing a 'rainwater tax' to boost revenue. Thus, it's understandable why figures like Prime Time Minister Trudeau and many others would prefer to avoid a housing market crash. It’s not just about funding retirement by selling off homes-where would one live after selling?-but also about the considerable revenue that governments at all levels collect.

Totally agree with what you have been saying about the effect of high immigration and investors (those using housing as commodities not those developing housing) on inflating the price of housing. I've gotten push back from people on the left saying that it is anti-immigrant, even racist' to state that immigration has any significant effect on housing prices and, on the right, from people who say that investors buying homes and renting them out are actually helping the supply situation. I appreciate that you are just stating things as they are.

Great content here, thanks for speaking out!

I think what Trudeau meant was that if housing goes down, a lot of retirees will be in hardship as many retirees depend on their house equity to fund their retirement. I think John either misunderstood JT's saying.

You are putting words in his mouth

What a sharp mind this PM…. That aside, generational fairness or not, a collapse in house prices would substantially hurt a huge swath of our population whose wealth has been parked in their homes. Therefore it is a politically supercharged issue.

He just expects young people to borrow to the max to get in. I think this is also they they pressured the banks to extend amortization periods and bail out debtors as rates went higher.

Serfdom comes to Canada!

I didn’t quite agree with your interpretation of JTs comments. I listened twice and thought you took some liberties. If all leaders are thinking and doing the same, (which they are at all levels of government) why the stoking of the fake outrage?

Fabulous analysis. Your knowledge, expertise, and honesty are exemplary.

Wow great rant John!

Well said.

AMEN John agreed!

Really enjoying at 28 years of age being 8 years into a process where leadership in this country has disrespected productivity and incentive for so long, that all productivity is gone and our government in communist fashion choses winners and losers over a rapidly shrinking economy per capita in real terms. Stagflation and inflation is clearly most beneficial for levered asset holders as long as labor costs are pinned down, and no bank ever has to recognize mark to market losses.... Our leaders decided youth to be losers and since 2020 its very clear the cohort of old boomers will continue to step on the young to keep the old heads above water/from ending on the streets. I also do not believe change in leadership from popular party will make any difference in this country. Neither leaders are willing to even frame these issues correctly because of the skew in demographic that holds all that assets funds them. Canadas real-estate Ponzi like U.S Stonk market are fictitiously valued to obscured recognition that both systems are deeply insolvent.

The peasants had no bread? Let them eat cake!

The probability of BoC rate cut this week is now 80% because of Trudeau’s comment about housing price. House price could stay flat at least but not going down significantly because of devaluation of Canadian dollar, aka printing of money.

Enjoy the content John, but I see it a little differently than you on this topic. Yes, having too many investors in the housing market is problematic when there is a shortage of housing, however, you really can’t blame investors at all for this. In the 80s and 90s the government used to build purpose built rental housing. They subsequently washed their hands of this and downloaded the responsibility to investors and, furthermore, their policies encouraged this. In the 00s and 10s this wasn’t much of an issue, but our population wasn’t growing like it has been for the past 10yrs. In summary, the mess we’re in today is due to these factors: 1. Limited housing supply due to too much red tape and taxes on builders 2. Unsustainable population growth with no concern for how to house people 3. Policy that encouraged private investment in housing with no consideration given to supply/demand Thanks for the content.

Housing is the Canadian economy. It will be a population crash and mass exodus that brings prices down... or it will simply become a country for the rich, maybe.

how about my RRSP fund that invested on the stock . Government backing the stock price as well.

Here is a data point, housing peaked in 1994 and didn't rise over that high until 2004. A decade of flat pricing is possible though granted the context in the 90s is different then today (rates, immigration, homelessness) but I can imagine they hope wages rise over the decade "catching" up to the price, rather then working on a real solution. And our economy is heavily impacted by housing so a dampening in that sector will have a recessionary or slow growth impact on the economy (and wages). Not really buying a flat decade is a solution but rather a flat decade is not in impossibility.

Blackface knows home owners will be pissed if their houses are taken away. But the next gen will not own, just rent. That's why every time he mentions what his govt is building is rentals.

Hey John, been listening to you and Steve Stresi for a while and love your podcast. I wholeheartedly agree with all your arguments against the federal government..

Considering supply & demand, it doesn't matter who is the owner. It is how much ppl want/need it compared to how much is available. In this case, demand is above supply so price will go up. It is capitalism, the "free" market.

Ok so raise salaries then to get into the market ! I work for one of the big four firm in the global side . They are literally making Toronto a hub for recruiting because we are cheaper than the US. I make less than my colleague in the US that I manage !! Here you go !!!

Of course house prices will stay high, but the canadian peso will compete with the Argentinian peso. Canada is a low quality dump from sea to sea..not sure why anyone would want to keep capital here.

The current generation will never have a retirement.

You Should Be Their Teacher............

As expect home price cannot fall as thus will be disastrous.

For the first time, I actually agree with what Trudeau said.

@ 9:00 ive been saying this for so long. If they could of made things more affordable, they would of done it by now.

Proof that our country's leader doesn't have a clue whats going on

Anytime a liberal talks about "fairness" in ANYTHING, you know they are just fleecing someone for the sake of something else. It's like that with taxation, it's like that with housing... This is insane. My son won't be able to afford his own place, I will strongly suggest to him he plans to live his life outside of Canada.

This is a very specific complaint to not a large pool of investor buyers

I always like your channel and the conversations that the 3 of you have but this time I am disappointed. What else do you want the PM to say? I don’t support him either because the liberals have a cheque book from which they keep writing cheques without any accountability. Its like making a big deal about something that we are unaware off. Yes housing is an issue for a lot of us including me but I do not want to ruin someone’s retirement dreams due to my wishes of entering the housing market. The basic principle is supply and demand. If there are 5 people looking to buy a house, then price may be high but if there are 5 homes available for 1 buyer then the demand will reduce as supply is high. The important part is that interest rates should remain at 5% or higher and then let it dictate the consumer behaviour.

The young voted for this

What’s the difference between Canadas housing market and Raging Kitty and the GameStop phenomenon?

I am extremely disappointed by this video coming from a smart and knowledgeable person like you. You know way too much to take this stance. It's all levels of governments that caused this problem. JT is talking about stopping the house price inflation, just like the BOC is trying to stop the inflation going forward and not trying to deflate the prices to 2010 levels. Practically, that is the most likely economic scenario. You have twisted this interview so much. I also don't think any homeowners want to vote for a PM who wants to crash the house prices. Also, it would have been nice if you proposed some policy ideas to create a scenario where everyone could buy a house. Are you proposing a price controls with a maximum house price for every type? What else other than increasing supply and reducing immigration and non permanent residents?

The vision that a housing is an investment needs to come to an end.. they can't touch capital gains on principal residences, so they need to attack it with much higher property taxes in the 1.5 to 2% range

At least he is honest and consistent in keeping the promise to the Poeple who elected Him .ENJOY IT !

i like the rant but are you gonna stop representing investors from buying up a house or say no to the fat commission you get. Until you start doing your business differently you should not be pointing fingers.

I disagree with you. Renters pay substantially lower costs for their housing and as a result get to save more for retirement through investments that are not a house. You speak like renters arent able to save for retirement but that is simply not true. What you're suggesting would ruin so many people's retirement plans and wouldn't add a single new house in a country that has a house shortage. I think this would be especially problematic for all the first time home buyers who are under 40 who had to go through enormous debts to access housing. It would be deeply unfair to crash the value of their life investment when there are alternatives.

More incoming people,more constructions,more house will rise up. Anyways,we need Trudeau go first....

Get rid of the Greenbelt in Ontario and our prices at the edge of GTA 905 will be the same as Calgary. Otherwise, land prices will have to go up with density. Dog crate condos at 4x income with land owners capturing all the gains from density.

I'm not a huge fan of Justin Trudeau but you're being a bit disingenuous with how you describe what he said. House prices can not be allowed to crash, that's completely unfair on the people who bought them and worked hard to pay their mortgages. There is only one way out of Canada's housing problem and that is to build as many purpose built rentals as possible. That will give people somewhere to live without crashing the house prices of people who bought. There is simply going to have to be a change, to the continental europe way of thinking, when it comes to houses.

It shouldn't be about punishing liberals ? pasalis, you are full of sheet.

Really, unfair? WOW!! No, just punish homeowners. I'm a homeowner but I cannot afford the Tesla. So should I start shouting out that not everyone can afford a Tesla therefore is not fair????

Logical. If real estate crash 30 percent, all the banks go under.

Trudeau finally told the truth. Nobody who owns a house wants it go down in the slightest!! What is so unfair when upon death the youth will inherit much. So relax.

Own nothiing and be happy?

The greatest generation was followed by the most selfish generation.

how about the increased cost of builders, labor, materials, and land value... they all increase over time... it is not realistic to keep the price flat. it might be possible in a communist country though.

I have a request from you. If you want to know, whether the house price is manipulated or not, bring a professional person and ask what is the cost of construction per Sqft? what is the cost of the building permit and what is the cost of land? especially for single houses. Using one sentence from PM in the podcast and try to judge the cause of this situation is not going to explain the problem. I consider this video only a tool to have more viewer.

Affordable housing is government built ghettos.

It’s true I bought a a house to retire. I didn’t have any money for college so I hunted for 20+ hour jobs my whole life. Took me 5 years to save for my house. I don’t want to work these hard ass slave jobs for 20 bux an hour anymore. Which is why I bought a house to invest.

Fair,lol coming from a serial ethics violater

So Trudeau think there's a high possibly of house prices falling otherwise he wouldn't have made this comment 😂. What a Joker drama teacher who can't act.

The problem is socialism and immigration.

Kind of twisting words to suit your own narrative. He never said home prices should stay high. What he said is that they need to retain value. Retaining value doesn’t mean that they should be high. Just that it should stay as a valuable asset. He even goes on to talk about those who expect prices to stay on their current trajectory, should think about the society they want to live in. No where in the first clip did I hear him say anything about prices staying high. But please continue with your propaganda to incite people to be upset. All so you can get more likes on your RU-vid channel, which will then help you (and none of the people you claim to speak for) make more money.

He's not wrong

Of course! Otherwise lots of people will go broke. I agree with Trudeau statement, it's a tricky balance

What you are saying about investors makes no sense. First of all the only thing that really matters is total number of houses vs number of families, unless those houses are standing empty. Yes there could be renting vs owning issue but if we have more than enough houses total - everyone will be able to afford place to live one way or the other. The vey fact that we have investors buying houses and house prices growing brings incentive to build more and as soon as prices will go down - people will obviously build less and it will make things worse. Another way to look at it - there is no practical difference between buying house and building house in terms of effect on the market. When you are buying the house to convert it into rental - you are paying money either directly to the builder or it will trickle down to the builder through the market. This means this money will be used to build another house, or we may say that this house was build because builder was expecting demand from you. And when you "build" or sponsor build of the house - no one is hurt, it is between you and builder. Unless there is not enough capacity to build, and that is exactly what "just build more homes" crowd suggest to solve.

Hate Trudeau here! But he didnt say anything inflammatory or not true! He said high trajectory isnt good. He said housing maintaining its value is important for people's savings. Do you want housing to go up 15%/yr for 4 more years? Or go down 15% per year for 4 years?????

Let’s not conflate house with home. It is entirely possible to keep prices of single detached homes elevated. We are not building them anymore. They are becoming increasingly rare . So boomers can keep their single attached homes and use them as a retirement piggy bank if they wish. The government is going to incentivize highly dense housing construction. A large new supply of purpose built rentals , condos and stacked townhomes incentivized by government could flatline prices for years. As long as we understand that when we talk about a home we are no longer talking about a house. Single detached homes are for the rich. Going forward ordinary Canadians are going to be living in apartments or smaller condos. So yes, we can get ordinary Canadians into the housing market. No, we cannot get ordinary Canadians into single detached homes unless their parents are wealthy and are property owners. I’m not a fan of Trudeau, but what he is advancing as a strategy, can work. People just need to adjust their expectations. You are going to raise a family without a backyard.

We need more houses for the first time home buyers but we shouldn't penalize the hardworking people that bought a house and paid off their mortgage with many sacrifices. They don't want to lose all the money that they paid for downpayment.

John, you must be from Toronto, right? Why don't you run for a communist party?

nobody said their home is their entire retirement portfolio for retirement, it is a big part of course. I agree with Trudeau, he's got my vote

John, I have so much respect for you but your rant is crazy. All I hear is government government and even more government to get involved in our lives and investments. Government should be building those homes for rental purposes and maybe (maybe) first time homes for those needing true help. Irrespective of how many homes are to be built, I hope Canada doesn’t become the type of country you’re proposing. The free market can be wicked and helpful. But if you want home prices to drop, as a realtor, can’t you sell your home for $300k less than it’s worth and start a new comparable? Is this what you’d tell your sellers? And would your $300k discount make your house affordable to all. Please stop this nonsense and then preach how you work to get your buyers and sellers the best price. Real estate ownership and wanting to own more thereof is second only to prostitution since the advent of credit. Sorry John, not too impressed by this we need investors for this but not for that. Whoever has the ability to buy, buys what he or she can. The system that you’re proposing is more unrealistic than building millions of homes in 10 years. I look forward to your next podcast!!