Homeownership in Canada has been a hot topic within the 2021 federal election as the national housing market continues to see rising property prices and falling supply. With voting day less than a month away, the country’s major political parties have each laid down their strategies to mitigate the country’s chronic housing market problems.

Earlier this week, the Liberal government announced their official housing plan. If re-elected, the party would introduce a number of measures aimed at boosting home ownership and supply, including adding 1.4 million homes, rent-to-own projects and the creation of a Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights that would place a ban on blind bidding.

“Owning a home shouldn’t be out of reach and renting shouldn’t be so expensive for young Canadians,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a party statement on Tuesday. “They shouldn’t be losing bidding wars when they see houses sitting empty next door. Or having to move hundreds of kilometers away from their communities just to pay their rent.”

The Liberal’s housing plan also details the temporary ban of new foreign ownership for the next two years in a move to “ensure Canadians have more access to purchasing homes.” A national tax on non-resident, non-Canadian owners with vacant and underused housing, which was first outlined in the 2021 Budget, would be expanded to include foreign-owned vacant land in urban areas.

Plans to control foreign property ownership have also been reported across the other two major party platforms this election. Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives pitched a similar policy to the Liberals in their platform released last week, which would bar foreign investors who are not living in or moving to Canada from purchasing homes for a two-year period. If elected, Jagmeet Singh’s NDP party would see the implementation of a 20 per cent foreign buyers tax on residential property purchases made by foreign corporations or people who are not citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

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