It seems like a short sighted policy. The major cost of buying a house is not the sale price, but the interest on the mortgage. If the Canadian government was truly concerned about Canadians being able to buy a house, a program of low interest guaranteed loans with low down payments, targeted at specific segments of the economy, such as first time home buyers would be much more effective.
There is nothing that prevents Canada from doing this as well. In fact, it's an excellent idea and one that some communities in the US utilize.
I wish that the US would enact similar laws limiting or outright forbidding the ownership of real estate by foreign corporations and severely limit ownership by foreign investors.
Of course the major cost of a home is the mortgage but too many people in the US are locked out of home ownership by the initial price/need to come up with a percentage of that large price as a down payment. This includes people who have been paying rent higher than a mortgage payment for years. It's really hard to come up with a down payment when rents are so high. Rents are so high because of real estate speculation and the desire for profits by corporations.
Government policy always has a goal. In this case, someone is worried about foreigners buying houses. Their solution is ban foreigners from buying houses, which easy to circumvent. There's a lot of handwringing over house prices, but no one seems to understand the problem. Of course low cost loans will increase demand and raise prices. What's the alternative?
It's just past Christmas and everybody acts like they've never seen "It's a Wonderful Life", where George Bailey defends home mortgages, by saying,
"
Don't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You, you said that they -- What'd you say just a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even thought of a decent home".
What's the point of bbn keeping home prices low if no one one can afford them?