The obsession

Pierre Poilievre is a landlord. Mark Carney is not. But the PM has a house and a cottage. (They both live in free homes in Ottawa.) Housing minister Gregor Roberston owns a multi-million dollar portfolio, including a Van penthouse and a Tofino estate. NDP leader Avi Lewis owns and uses two houses in BC. By last count, 40% of all MPs (132 of them) are landlords or real estate investors.

Some people allege this constitutes a conflict of interest and our politicians (like a certain US president) are using their legislative power to Hoover in personal gains.

That’s probably crap. Individual MPs have shockingly little influence on government policy while cabinet ministers are constantly under an ethics microscope. In anything, recent laws have favoured tenants, spanked landlords and made investing in property less attractive in terms of tax and scrutiny.

But it begs the question. Is real estate housing? Or is it an asset class?

Both, of course. And Canadians in general seem responsible for tipping the scale in one direction.

Between 15% and 22% of the population (depending on who you ask) own a principal residence plus another property they don’t live in. Royal LePage says about 4.5 million households hold real estate they rent out, for income and as an investment. If so, that’s a shocking 26% of all the families in Canada. It’s closer to 40% of those who also have a principal residence.

In small towns, rural areas and regional cities, the landlord bug bites harder than in the metropolises where real estate costs a bundle. In the GTA, for example, about 17% of all homeowners are also landlords, or own a secondary property. Together, however, these folks account for about 30% of the total residential housing stock.

It’s a similar tale in Vancouver, one of the most expensive cities on the planet. There 16% of households are owners and landlords, controlling 29% of the city’s entire inventory of housing.

So, who are these people? The ultra-wealthy? Boomers who bought rentals for a song decades ago?

Nope. In the GTA 18% of homeowners between 18 and 35 are also landlords and investors. That’s a big margin over the 11% of over-35s who also have secondary real estate. In Vancouver the share of young adults who are landlords is 14%, the same percentage as those who are older.

And in both urban areas, more than four in ten of these small-time landlords used existing equity in a property to leverage the purchase of another one (or three).

The bulk of secondary properties (over 60%) are rented to long-term tenants. Some are used personally. Some are short-term rentals. Some are for kids going to uni.

The point of all this is that Canadians have made a clear choice. Real estate is an asset. It is an investment vehicle. It represents personal wealth and is a repository for it. Property is also an income-generator and an efficient way to harvest profits. It’s easy to finance while tax laws make it beneficial to carry.

You can buy with 20% down, get a mortgage at competitive rates anywhere and write off all your costs – including mortgage interest – from taxable rent received.

With an inbred suspicion of capital markets, a high degree of financial illiteracy and massive familial coaching, no wonder we have succeeded in make homes into instruments of net worth. But, is that wrong?

One myth is that high housing prices have been caused by institutional investors snapping up properties and consistently outbidding poor first-timers. Stats don’t support that – even in the US where Congress just passed a law aimed at curbing large-scale buying of properties. About 1% of American residential properties are owned by institutional investors. In Canada, the number hardly moves the needle – at 0.01% to 0.04%.

When it comes to rental apartments, though, REITs and similar large landlords control about a quarter. Individual (‘mom-and-pop’) investors are landlords to about 50% of all units.

As a nation we hold over 45% of our total net worth in residential real estate. That’s $8.5 trillion.

Here’s the interesting part of that stat: the bottom 40% (by wealth) of Canadians have the overwhelming bulk of their net worth in property. The top 20% – who actually have 68% of all the money – are far less dependent on real estate, having more invested in financial assets.

Real estate volatility, then – like the massive swings we saw after Covid and since 2022 – affects those with the least ability to insulate themselves from such change and the lowest level of liquidity. When a lousy market hits, they’re both trapped and worth less.

And yet we continue.

About the picture: “Pixie was a rescue from the Whitehorse SPCA… way back, when she was a few years old,” writes Andre. “Fast forward 13 years and here she is, showing her age and never ending love… She is missed…”

To be in touch or send a picture of your beast, email to ‘garth@garth.ca’.

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/07/10/the-obsession/