My fourth Advent Policy Brief continues on the theme of housing solutions that might piss off billionaires 😉
Today, I propose amendments to the federal Competition Act that would enable the Competition Bureau to enforce limits on the number of residential leases any one corporate entity can hold. I'd include language making "residence hoarding" explicitly a crime for the executives and who attempt to skirt compliance with lease limits.
The concentration of residential leases in fewer and fewer corporate hands is a trend that can only exacerbate the rental crisis and the struggles intersecting it. If the federal government can put a ceiling on the size of banks and media companies through anti-competition laws, they can reel in corporate landlords holding tens of thousands residential leases.
I cede the floor to housing economists to define the threshold of what those limits should be and whether that limit should be universal or local.
