Last night, I spoke with a friend in Toronto. He is in tears that he will never be able to buy a condo in the city of his birth. He is a government employee who makes 56 000 Canadian dollars per year. He is single and has no write-offs (so his income tax is around 52%). The cost of a condo in Toronto is increasing by over 5000 dollars per week. Surgeons and other high salary employees are being out-bid by mystery buyers from China who are absent at the auction (who send an agent in their stead).
When a person outside of Canada (usually a non-citizen but could be a non-resident) buys a property in Toronto, there is no due diligence, no AML check performed. The bare minimum needs to be provided in terms of buyer identity.
This is not the case in Denmark, most Asian countries, etc....it's not so wide-open as it is in Canada.
Canada has become addicted to the money of immgration, and forsees very high levels of immigration in the future. If you 'turn on the taps' the value of all residential property will automatically go up. Ordinary Canadian-born Canadians cannot buy in Toronto, not even a 600 sq foot condo. They were priced out of Vancouver a decade ago. Yet....they aren't angry, they aren't organising anything political, they do not recommend that their gov't perform due diligence or help ordinary Canadians in any way. To make matters worse, they NEVER ask if their own gov't planners and designers are, in fact, deeply vested in Canadian property. Is this happening?