Trump says corporations are buying up homes. Is it happening in Canada?

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced his plans to block institutional investors like Blackstone and Invitation Homes from buying up single-family homes, he spurred renewed interest from Canadians wondering if giant hedge funds are also buying up homes in this country, contributing to the ongoing housing crisis. On January 7, Google Trends showed the top search queries in Canada related to Trump were tied to his single-family homes decree and how that related to the Canadian real estate market. The fringe People’s Party of Canada X account claimed “foreign multinationals” were buying up homes in Canada. Popular YouTuber Moose on The Loose posted a video with over 144,000 views claiming corporate ownership of homes has driven up the prices of homes in Canada. NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan alleged that we are witnessing the “financialization of housing” in Canada, calling for a moratorium on corporations purchasing new properties. But what’s the actual truth? And what’s the current situation in Canada when it comes to investors buying up real estate and contributing to driving up housing costs? The Trudeau government banned foreign buyers, but Canadian investors impact on housing market is unclear In the U.S., hedge funds buying up new and existing single-family homes and other residential real estate is a real phenomenon, adding to demand and ultimately helping drive up prices. Ownership by major corporations has reached as high as 4.2 percent in Atlanta, 2.6 percent in Dallas, and 2.2 percent in Houston, and is only growing. The world’s largest alternative investment firm Blackstone alone has invested more than $600 billion in real estate, with nearly half of that in residential. Institutional investors have distinct advantages over individual homebuyers because they can borrow at lower rates than family households and face no stress-test constraints. These large investor groups often buy up pre-existing homes in bulk or buy build-to-rent neighbourhoods. In Canada, the lay of the land is far different, but institutional investors and other smaller investors still own a large portion of the residential real estate market. Foreign buyers, including non-Canadian institutional investors, were banned from purchasing residential real estate by the federal government in 2023, due to fears of the financialization of housing in Canada similar to the trend occurring in the U.S. In its final year, the Trudeau government announced it was looking at restricting large corporations from buying single-family homes, too. However, after consultations in late 2024, no ban has yet been enacted. Residential real estate ownership in Canada remains largely opaque. “Our data on who owns what, when it comes to housing, is incredibly poor,” housing expert, Hub contributor, and Missing Middle Initiative founder Mike Moffatt said to The Hub. “It’s not as robust in the U.S. The federal government is looking to change that. In budget 2024 they were talking about creating an ownership registry to make it clearer who owns what.” That registry never came to fruition. Despite the murky numbers, Moffatt is confident that institutional investors are not buying up single-family homes en masse yet in Canada. However he does note that smaller investment groups and individual investors have been buying up more and more of that limited market. “We do know that through census data and other data that the percentage of single-family homes owned by investors has increased. But as far as we can tell, that’s all kind of like mom and pop investors or consortium of rich dentists or whoever,” Moffatt explained. “It’s not the institutional players, and we know that because most of the institutional players are publicly traded companies.” The latest blurry snapshot on Canadian housing ownership dates back to the 2021 census, which Statistics Canada found showed a ballpark estimate of a range of 20 to 31.5 per cent of housing inventory in B.C., Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and New Brunswick was owned by investors, including both corporations and mom-and-pop landlords. The 2026 census will undoubtedly show a rise in investors’ share of the overall residential real estate pie. Although single-family homes may not be being bought up by institutional investors at the same rate in Canada, large investor groups still own a large portion of the housing market here. However, they are primarily in the form of apartments and other rentals. Apartments now dominate new builds in Canada, making up as much as 81 percent of under-construction inventory in Canadian housing late last year. Canadian institutional investors, including pension funds, private equity, asset managers, and real estate investment funds (REITs), have focused their portfolios more on buying purpose-built rentals and multi-family homes. For example, top multi-family home asset management company Starlight Investments owns 54,000 multi-family suites and 498 multi-residential communities in five provinces. How institutional investors could start buying up homes in Canada Moffatt doesn’t discount hedge funds or other major investment groups someday systematically buying up single-family homes in Canada. The current economic climate in Canada may actually encourage the popular practice in America moving up north. The recent depreciation in the Canadian residential real estate market, coupled with the overall stagnant economy and pause on population growth via immigration, may attract more investors in the near future who see lots of upside. The Carney government is also looking to reopen foreign investment in residential real estate by as early as next year, lifting the foreign-buyer ban, though there may be strict caveats. “We need to figure out the best role for offshore capital to play in the housing market,” housing minister and former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson told Bloomberg News at the end of 2025. Prime Minister Carney, who previously worked as the vice chair at institutional investor Brookfield Asset Management, unveiled his government’s new housing agency Build Canada Homes in September of last year. The new agency earmarked $6 billion in funding over the next three years and is tasked with financing, building, and partnering on large-scale rental and affordable housing. Large investors will almost certainly play a significant role in the government-funded projects. Carney’s Brookfield alma mater has large holdings in prefabricated modular homes and the Liberal campaign platform last year touted the factory-made homes. The Carney government faces a dilemma in actually hitting its target of 500,000 new housing units per year because the largest voting cohort supporting the Liberals—with nearly 50 percent of Canadian voters 60 and up supporting the Grits in recent polls—is the boomer generation, most of whom are homeowners, with much of their net worths tied into their appreciated homes. When he was sworn in following the 2025 election, Robertson took heat and backtracked after saying housing prices didn’t need to go down despite the ongoing housing crisis. Why institutional investors are not what’s driving the housing crisis in Canada As President Trump plans to sign an executive order banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes, critics of the housing affordability plan point out that the main reason for the rise in home prices south of the border largely parallel the same drivers in Canada: a lack of new housing construction matching the uptick in demand, driven by population growth from large increases in immigration. In Canada, the housing construction problem is compounded by government inaction and over-regulation at all three tiers of government. In a newly published Hub DeepDive research paper, which also found only the richest Canadians can now afford to buy a home, the authors laid out the main government-induced culprits behind the housing crisis. Misaligned tax policy, governments acting as developers, lack of market-responsive housing policy, rising municipal development charges and fees, excessive red tape, and restrictive zoning and land-use rules have all contributed to successive governments failing to increase the housing supply for decades. Housing experts believe institutional investors can actually play a role in addressing crippling housing prices, including by providing much of the capital spurring growth in housing construction, but they’re a double-edged sword. “People have legitimate concerns when it comes to larger companies and institutional investors, this model of companies, buying up existing stock, renovating it, and seeing rents go up,” Moffatt said. “The big thing is more transparency around who owns what.”