Canada

Yeah, and rental prices have skyrocketed too.

During the next federal election this will be my "single issue" that will determine who I vote for.

At this point I can ignore our insane grocery/telecom prices, even though that is still a huge issue. The housing crises has far worse ripple effects down the chain: potential buyers can't buy so they rent nicer places, potential renters can't rent the nice places so they are overpaying for the rentals they can afford, and people who can't afford any of the rental prices are scraping by with roommates or on the streets.

And these development companies have the nerve to go to court over government investigations over their shady practices.

Shameless.

On the other hand, making it expensive to be a landlord also drives up what people need to pay for rent to cover those costs. There should be options for people to get housing without having to commit to owning it themselves. Income from rental properties is subject to income taxes, and there's lots of subsidies/incentives that reduce housing costs that only apply to a primary dwelling, not rental properties.

Personally, I'd like to see a crown corp that does housing. Set reasonable pricing and a base standard of what people should expect from a rental property and the private industry has to compete with that.

Unfortunately, in the case of housing a lot of the abuses of tenants' rights tends to be caused by amateur landlords (who don't know how to properly plan ahead). There are a lot of laws to know and unexpected costs involved, so having a larger building management entity makes sense here. It would be cool if non-profit renters' co-ops (like the people in Hamilton trying to buy their apartment building) could be successfully formed.

Any property that you put up for rent is actually treated as a business by the CRA.

• You pay higher property taxes on a rental.
• If you sell, and the property isn't your primary residence, you pay capital gains taxes.
• All rental income is taxed and you can't claim that rental income... you can claim interest paid one the mortgage, but it's not that much.
• There are incentives to maintain a single home when you're buying and selling... If you buy/sell your primary residence you don't pay capital gains taxes.

Should there be more taxing on second and more properties that are investment... maybe. If you increase the cost of ownership, that cost is placed on the renter. A property owner isn't in the game for fun and they aren't going to be willing to take a lot just for the benefit of a renter. It might put pressure on speculators to increase the taxes, but... It's not as 1:1 as people like to think.

Prevent companies from owning housing without having the increased taxation. Treat married couples as a single unit (this may be problematic with separated couples?). I don't have a good answer for children except that then you are effectively gifting all your kids and relatives a house. So if THEY want to buy their own, different house they pay increased taxes or sell the previous. And that prevents one person from owning dozens of properties; divesting them to their children. Which really means if your goal is to property horde you need more kids...which is a very weird incentive to be sure.

I agree there isn't much evidence for current supply issues. However...

Even the so-called chip shortage later revealed that chip output saw no decline throughout the pandemic or since.

Output may have not reduced, but it did change during the pandemic. Many fabs retired their legacy equipment to move to newer processes. However, the auto industry's designs were still based on the old processes, so they experienced a shortage. This compounded the delayed demand of consumers who didn't buy cars due to uncertainty and limited travel. That shortage has mostly been resolved, but hasn't completely settled (there are basically no "deals" and old used cars are still in high demand).

The government

Governments. Both federal and provincial governments can manage corporate tax rates, and both provincial and municipal governments can manage property tax rates.

But each of these governments serve the will of the people, and all three governments ultimately serve the very same people. Good luck convincing the people that they should willing choose to pay higher taxes.

So this to me is the biggest problem when it comes to fiscal policy. During recessions, central banks reduce interest rates AND increase money supply in order to stimulate the economy. Governments HAVE to do their part by increasing spending but over the last 3 decades, government spendings have NOT matched the actions of the BOC in proportion. Spending needs to be immediate, and not some delayed project that takes 5 years to implement. Sub point to this is that government investment programs need to be counter-cyclical as much as possible (i.e. Chinese gov'ts massive spending during the last global downturn in infrastructure). And during inflationary times, governments need to reduce or restrain spending, and enact policies that remove supply constraints in essential goods like housing.

The BIGGEST issue we've had in the past 30-40 years has been the former - central banks having to act alone to resuscitate the economies without governments doing their part. Which has led to a successive cycle of cheap money-led boom and bust that's brought interest rates lower and lower which has fueled the wealth divide that's brought about the social inequities and class divide we have today.

Unfortunately, I don't see it ending soon.