Roughly one-third of Liberal cabinet ministers own rental, investment real estate: records
Global News
While fully legal, real estate experts say the holdings reflect the degree to which Canadians increasingly view real estate as a financial asset, rather than a place to live.
Roughly one-third of ministers sitting around the Liberal cabinet table own rental or investment real estate assets, according to their filings with the federal conflict of interest commissioner.
While fully legal, real estate experts say the holdings reflect the degree to which Canadians increasingly view real estate as a financial asset, rather than a place to live.
It also comes as recent data from Canadian financial institutions has demonstrated the growing role of investors in fuelling price growth — a trend Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland billed this week as an issue of “intergenerational injustice.”
“One of the things that I am most concerned about as someone who — it shocks me to say this — is 53 years old, is the intergenerational injustice,” Freeland told reporters on Monday.
“We had a better shot at buying a home and starting a family than young people today, and we cannot have a Canada where the rising generation is shut out of the dream of homeownership.”
She was speaking at an event touting measures in the federal budget that the government says will tackle the sky-high prices pushing young Canadians out of homes, by both increasing supply and also cracking down on the financialization of real estate.
Financialization is a term increasingly being used in reference to investors buying up real estate — typically residential real estate that could otherwise serve as starter homes or affordable rental units — and then treating those as financial assets to generate profit, either through resale or raising rents.
According to a Bank of Canada analysis earlier this year, home purchases by investors have outpaced those of first-time homebuyers or even repeat homebuyers during the COVID-19 pandemic.