Canada Housing

flip for profit

This is only possible under severe supply constraints and lack of lamd value tax. As the Australian Capital Territory data in my original comment shows, even a very modest LVT deters speculation.

If you cut out the "speculation" in "corporate speculation", that's the important part. If you focus your energy on the "corporate", you 1) expose yourself to unintended side effects (maybe you unintentionally make it too hard to build new housing, especially rentals), and 2) you still have the problem of neighbor Jim the landlord exploiting you.

I live in a city (Montreal) that has some of the best land use patterns in North America, and a result is a much better supply situation. And you know what? Corporate landlords are perfectly fine. I live in a building owned and managed by a corporation, and I negotiated down my rent before signing the lease. How is that possible? Due to more abundant supply, I have more negotiating power than people in Toronto or Vancouver do, corporate landlord or not.

Further, I've had small local landlords before, and they can also suck in their own special ways. My current corporate landlord has a much better system for getting repairs done and is very fast to do so. I had a toilet with unresolved issues for months with my old small-time landlord.

Blaming the "corporate" for the "speculation" is a red herring. I'd rather spend our finite political capital fighting for YIMBYism and land value taxes, not trying to pointlessly stick it to the man.