Die Knappheitsfalle: Artikel, in dem argumentiert wird, dass die Lösung des Problems der Erschwinglichkeit von Wohnraum in Kanada behindert wird, weil so viele Kanadier Wohnraum als Investition betrachten

The author missed several critical things that have driven financialization of housing by making them the most attractive investment class imaginable.

In addition to the guaranteed „never zero“ value, which is overstated as you can absolutely go underwater on your mortgage, but is otherwise sound, and the barriers to building, the government drives financialization in other ways:

1. **Preferential financing.** Loans to purchase a primary residence home are insured by the government, allowing banks to lend at *far* lower rates than they would to someone trying to start, maintain, or grow a business or purchase any other investment.

2. **Special demand subsidies.** The government provides tax exemptions for saving towards buying a house, generous cash handouts, and other credits that add buckets more cash to the vast pools of capital going towards housing. This allows sellers of this restricted resource to simply charge and collect more money.

3. **A wildly preferential tax environment**. Landowners pay far lower property taxes than multiunit renters or businesses. Also, primary residences are exempt from capital gains taxes. The income as wealth appreciation you get from your home is basically tax free,. Income from a productive business, however, has taxes on both income and capital gains. This gives housing a *massive* edge as an investment asset class.

4. **Guaranteed government protection.** During COVID, even the NDP was calling for governments to give cash to homeowners to cover some mortgage costs, while renters would only merit a freeze on increases to rent. That is the most anti-capital party. Obviously, government protection of homeowners are among the most politically ironclad out there. Government protection of market scarcity is only the beginning.

If we want to end the financialization of housing, we’ll have to start peeling back some of these measures that make houses superior investments to anything else. It will need to happen slowly to prevent a market crash, but unless housing is not way more attractive an investment than anything else, anyone with two brain cells will making housing their first and most important investment, and be incentivised to keep housing expensive and scarce.

It’s stunted because the federal and provincial governments do as little as possible to fix it. This is how they protect the GDP, their own investment portfolios, and in the case of the feds, the largest active voting base which routinely votes liberal.

It’s painfully obvious yet the various “leaders” will do anything to avoid talking about it.

This article is out of touch with reality. Canadians are not special in treating housing as investments. There are literally international real estate funds anyone can buy into.