Despite the fact that Toronto has been trying to enhance measures to stop investors from dominating the city's housing market, a new report from the Canadian government shows that an appalling number of residences in the city are still being hoarded by people who own more than one property that they aren't using as their primary home.

The figures, which come from StatCan's Canadian Housing Statistics Program, are definitely concerning, especially while the average citizen has no hopes of ever affording a home of their own here, and many can hardly even afford rent anymore given the housing and cost of living crises.

Expanding housing stock nationwide to try and relieve our notoriously ridiculous real estate prices has been identified as a top political priority for many months, but goods and services across the board are only slated to get less affordable and more in demand as our population balloons — and investors are very much contributing to the problem.

Majority of the population in T.O needs affordable housing.

— Edward (@edpost) May 30, 2023

According to the latest data from last week, investors now own an unbelievable 56.7 per cent of Toronto condos built from 2016 to 2021, adding up to a whopping 37,580 units. This group also owns close to 40 per cent of all residence types built in the city during those years.

Across the province at large, more than half the collective value of properties with multiple units — 51.8 per cent — is also in the possession of for-profit businesses rather than individual people, which, as StatCan notes, is among the contributors to "concerns about financialization and the concentration of ownership in the real estate market that have emerged in recent years."

Thankfully, Toronto's Vacant Home Tax were implemented after the years surveyed for the report, meaning that the levy could have some impact on investor-owned properties.

The City is actually set to increase it from one to three per cent for the 2024 taxation year after 2,336 units were declared vacant and owners of a whopping 44,902 failed to declare their status, meaning they will be taxed automatically.

Based on recent figures, Toronto's vacant home tax has been a huge success for the city 👀 https://t.co/fTcK4Bv0yg #Toronto #RealEstate #Tax

— blogTO (@blogTO) October 3, 2023

Then there is Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax and Canada's foreign buyer ban, the latter of which was just implemented at the beginning of this year, though later amended to permit more exceptions.

Still, there's the question of if the financialization of our real estate market can be reversed enough to turn housing into anything but a profitable commodity reserved for only the ultra wealthy.

And, there are those investors with enough money to take the hit of additional fees and determined enough to find loopholes in legislation — such as thousands of Airbnbs operating in contravention of city rules — though leaders are vowing to crack down on those, too.