Why Canadian Housing Needs Speculators - British Columbia Real Estate Association

Why Canadian Housing Needs Speculators

August 20, 2024

With Canada facing ongoing housing affordability and supply crises, BCREA CEO Trevor Koot discusses the need for risk-takers, innovators, and – yes – speculators in the sector.

Transcript

We can’t talk about housing affordability without talking about housing supply. As we at BCREA have been discussing for years – as have many others – we need to build more homes faster. Not just in British Columbia. Not just in hot markets. But across the country.

And we can’t count on governments – municipal, provincial, or federal – to tackle the housing supply issue alone. What we need is real people, with real money, and taking on real risk. What we need is … speculators.

In recent years, that word has taken on a negative connotation as governments and others have pit real people trying to buy homes against speculators trying to drive up prices. But it’s not that simple. All industries rely on speculation to a certain extent to advance innovation and evolve their industry.

In the housing sector, we rely on speculators, entrepreneurs, and risk-takers to come up with new and innovative ways to add housing to all areas of the housing continuum, which ultimately increases supply.

The government should continue to consider well-thought-out and well-researched housing policy that incentivizes adding new supply to the housing continuum right across British Columbia. But we must be careful not to use labels that demonize a very important group of people who will help us achieve this common goal.

The reality is housing is not going to get built without somebody taking a risk. We can label them whatever we want: developers, entrepreneurs, speculators… But at the end of the day, somebody has to assume that risk.

So, let’s celebrate the risk-takers and the innovators in our industry, because, quite frankly, we need them.

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