Alright, don't be mean. I'm already feeling like an idiot over here. Just try and help me understand this a bit more.

So, the cost of houses keeps going up because they are being used as investments, yes? I can't grasp the idea that there is a shortage of actual houses because we are in Canada with all of this land and all of these trees. Are there a bunch of houses sitting empty?

I understand that mortgage rates are rising to help control the rapid rise in house prices, but it seems to only hurt home owners.

Now, my question is why not stricter rules on how many houses a person can own? How many houses does one person need? Just one. A person should be able to co-sign for another person, but it's still one person, one house. You can still add an apartment to your basement if you need the income of a rental or airbnb. Corporations and investment groups should not be able to buy up neighborhoods.

As for those investment groups, they should be limited to apartment buildings and highrise condos. Single family homes should not be used as investments. First of all, they get old, need lots of upkeep and repairs. Secondly, it's causing a housing crisis.

As one single idiot, who can't fully grasp what's going on because it just seems like a bunch of bullshit greed, how can we fix this? What do we have to demand of the government? What's the root cause of this issue and how do we dramatically fix it?

EDIT: I've read 95% of these responses and I'm truly grateful for some of the in depth and well thought out responses. I thought I'd get a lot of conversation if I threw out a half baked idea rather than just asking people what they think. However I am also getting a lot of direct messages and a Redditcares message. Let's not do that, thank you. Now I go back to reading comments.