Canada May Limit Visas Due to Housing Crisis
Canada is thinking about limiting the number of foreign students to help fix its housing crisis. This idea was suggested by Canadian Housing Minister Sean Fraser and is one of several being considered to tackle the rising cost of homes, which has become a big problem for many Canadians.
The Problem with Housing in Canada
Housing prices in Canada have gone up a lot, with the average cost of a home being around C$750,000 ($550,000; £435,000) as of August. This is a 360% increase from C$163,000 in 2000. Big cities like Toronto and Vancouver are especially expensive, with houses usually selling for over C$1 million. This has made them some of the least affordable cities in the world, according to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Index.
Rent prices are also going up, with the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto now being C$2,500, which is 25% more than last year. This problem is not just in big cities, but smaller ones too.
One reason for this is that there are not enough houses for the growing population, which is mostly because of immigration. Canada’s national housing agency says that 5.8 million new homes, including two million rental units, need to be built by 2030 to fix this problem. This means building 828,000 new homes every year, which is three times more than the 260,000 homes built in 2022.
People Don’t Like the Idea
Many people don’t like the idea of limiting foreign students. Universities and the province of Quebec have both said they don’t agree with it. In 2022, Canada let in 800,000 international students, which is 75% more than five years ago.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller has also said that the government will look at its immigration goals to see if they are affecting the housing situation. Canada has said it will let in 1.5 million new immigrants by 2025, but people are questioning if this is possible with the current housing situation.
However, experts say that limiting new people coming into the country will not really help solve the problem.
Housing is a Complicated Issue
Paul Kershaw, a professor and founder of a housing think tank, says that while foreign ownership and population growth are part of the problem, they are not the only reasons for the housing crisis. He thinks the problem is more complicated and involves things like rising property values, which help current homeowners, and the big role the real estate industry plays in Canada’s economy.
Kershaw thinks that people need to start thinking of houses as places to live first and investments second.
How It Affects International Students
International students, like Amin Kamaleddinezabadi from Iran, have a hard time finding affordable housing off-campus. Rental prices have gone up since he started studying in 2016, and international students often have to pay several months’ rent in advance because they don’t have a credit history in Canada.
Despite these problems, Kamaleddinezabadi thinks that international students are important for Canada’s long-term economic growth and should be a priority in immigration programs, not punished because of the country’s housing problems.
Universities Canada, which represents many universities in Canada, has said it is very worried about connecting international students to the housing crisis.
We Need a Plan
Kershaw says that to fix the housing crisis, the government needs a plan that looks at all the different parts of the problem. This includes making sure there are enough houses and that they are affordable, but also thinking about how important real estate is to Canada’s economy.
If there is no clear plan, he warns that different policies might work against each other and make the problem worse.