Canada is one of the hottest real estate markets in the world and now it is experiencing some sort of housing affordability crisis. To address this, Canada's housing agency is going to push for a national housing strategy by working with other federal colleagues, Bloomberg reported.
Evan Siddall, chief executive officer of Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp., said that the housing agency and other federal groups will work on broad-based consultations on national housing strategy.
"This will include consultations with provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous and other communities, and key stakeholders," Siddall said, explaining that "the goal will be to develop a comprehensive national housing strategy to reduce housing need."
Last month, a United Nations report, via Advisor.ca, pointed out the lack of housing strategy in Canada despite the housing crisis in the country. The U.N. said that the strategy should include funding for housing and plans for additional social housing units.
The U.N. also said that housing is a right of every Canadian, and protecting this right is what several groups are pushing for in the country. Housing prices have been skyrocketing and home critics said this contributed a lot to homelessness. A survey by Statistics Canada revealed that about 12.5 percent of Canadians are in need of housing.
In March, the average price of a home in Canada reached more than half a million dollars for the first time, with most expensive houses found in Toronto and Canada, Ottawa Citizen report said. Vancouver also hit another record high in terms of home sales last month, with an increase of 24.5 percent from last year's figures. The surge in house prices is driven by the tight supply and high foreign demand as investors try to cash in from the low Canadian dollar by acquiring more properties in the country.
