Builders say Canada's foreign buyers ban is stopping construction of new homes

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ban on foreign homebuyers is making it harder to build new housing, Canadian developers say.

The wording of the ban, which came into effect at the beginning of this year, unintentionally prevents a broad swath of companies from purchasing vacant land to turn into new housing due to its strict limits on foreign involvement, they say. That’s making it harder for the Trudeau government to ease the country’s housing crisis — the reason the prohibition was introduced in the first place.

Some developers in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, have already called off plans to buy land and build new housing for fear they’ll be contravening the ban, according to David Wilkes, chief executive officer of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, an industry trade body.

“I can’t believe the intention was to limit supply,” he said. “People just don’t believe that this could be happening.”