Housing bans promise change

Canada is looking out for its own as it's banning any foreigners from buying homes for two years in order to try and put the housing market's steamrolling inflation rate to a stop.

Apart from born-and-bred Canadians, only international students, foreign workers and those who have been granted permanent residency can buy property.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland put the ban in place to keep house prices in Canada from rising so high it pushes working-class and young Canadians out of the real estate market.

She described foreign investors as "parking their money in Canada by buying up homes," noting that houses are being used "as a speculative financial asset class" rather than as "homes for Canadian families."

The government is also proposing doubling the number of new homes being built in cooperation with local authorities as well as private and nonprofit sectors.

"We will invest in building more homes and in bringing down the barriers that keep them from being built. We will invest in the rental housing that so many count on. We will make it easier for our young people to get those first keys of their own," said Freeland.