TWO CANADAS, ONE HOUSING MARKET

There are two entirely different countries operating inside Canada’s borders.

Canada A is a place where people bought homes for $120,000, refinanced three times, rented out the basement, rode 40 years of asset inflation, and now sit on $2.5M of tax-free home equity while complaining about “kids these days.”

Canada B is where everyone under 40 lives. In this version of Canada, rent is $2,800 for a one-bedroom, groceries cost more than a vacation, and you must pass a Hunger-Games-level mortgage stress test to buy a $750K teardown with knob-and-tube wiring and raccoons included.

These two Canadas do not speak the same language, understand the same economy, or operate under similar financial realities. And yet—they are competing for the same urban land.

The result?
A generational housing divide so wide that you could drive a Surrey McMansion through it.

This is not anecdotal. This is structural.
And it didn’t happen by accident.

This is the deep dive boomers don’t want to read, millennials are tired of explaining, and politicians refuse to touch unless it polls well in Mississauga.

SECTION 1: THE STARTING LINE WAS NEVER EQUAL

Boomers Began the Race at the 60-Metre Mark

Boomers entered adulthood in a Canada with:

• Low home prices (average home price in 1986: $76,000)

• Low debt loads

• High income-to-housing affordability

• Secure pensions

• A job environment where “entry-level” did not require 3–5 years of experience

• Mortgage rates that look high on paper but applied to extremely cheap homes

And, most importantly:

• Government policy that actively promoted mass homeownership

Canada constructed more homes in the 1970s than we do now, despite having 15 million fewer people. The post-war consensus was simple:

“Housing is a social good, build a ton of it.”

Contrast that with the modern environment:

“Housing is an investment vehicle, and supply should be controlled to ‘protect neighbourhood character.’”

Millennials didn’t just have a later start.
They had a different start.

SECTION 2: HOME PRICES WENT TO SPACE WHILE WAGES STAYED ON EARTH

Boomers experienced a Canada where home prices were somewhat correlated with incomes. Millennials inherited a housing market decoupled from reality.

The Multipliers Tell the Entire Story

Boomers bought homes when:

• A single income could support a mortgage

• A teacher could buy a detached home

• Saving for a down payment took 2–4 years, not 25–30

Millennials are told to:

• Side hustle

• “Stop buying lattes”

• Live with three roommates until 40

• Move to the suburbs, then the exurbs, then the cornfields

The generational advice gap is staggering:

Boomer advice:
“Just work hard and buy a house.”

Millennial reality:
“To buy a house, you must earn $250K, save $200K, survive bidding wars, avoid renovictions, and pass mortgage stress tests designed for hedge funds.”

This is not a moral failing. It’s math.

SECTION 3: THE TAX SYSTEM IS BUILT LIKE A BOOMER RETIREMENT PLAN

Canada’s housing tax policies overwhelmingly reward older homeowners at the expense of everyone else.

1. Principal Residence Capital Gains Exemption (PRCGE)

The single most powerful wealth generator in the country. Boomers bought for $200K. House appreciated to $2M.
They walk away with $1.8M tax-free.

If a millennial earned $1.8M from labour?
They’d be paying 50% tax in Ontario or BC.

2. No Inheritance Tax

Boomers pass down multi-million-dollar real estate portfolios with zero tax friction.

3. Low Property Taxes

Cities keep property taxes artificially low to appease older voters.
A $3M Vancouver home may pay:

Less property tax than a Calgary condo.

This incentivizes:

• Holding instead of selling

• Using homes as wealth vaults instead of shelter

• NIMBY resistance to new housing supply

All of this is designed to inflate boomer assets over time.

SECTION 4: “I PAID 12% MORTGAGE RATES SO I HAD IT HARDER” — THE MOST MISLEADING ARGUMENT IN CANADIAN REAL ESTATE

Boomers love to bring up 12–18% mortgage rates like they're pulling the trump card.

This argument is misleading because:

High Rates × Low Prices = Manageable Payments

In 1985:

• 18% rates

• $80K home

• Monthly payment: low enough that one income could handle it

In 2024:

• 5.5–6.5% rates

• $1.2M home

• Monthly payment: $6,000+, requiring two high incomes and a stress test on rates that haven’t existed in a decade.

A 5% mortgage on a $1.2M house is financially harder than an 18% mortgage on a $75K house.

Add to this:

• student loans

• gig economy wages

• childcare that costs more than rent

• inflation outpacing wages every year

And you get what millennials already know:

High rates didn’t break boomers.
High prices are breaking millennials.

SECTION 5: NIMBYISM — THE BOOMER HOUSING LOCK

This is where the divide gets political.

Boomers are the majority voting bloc. Politicians need them. Therefore:

• Rezoning is blocked

• Density is fought

• Townhomes are called “neighbourhood character destruction”

• High-rises are banned in huge chunks of cities

• Every new housing policy must be “gentle,” “careful,” and “respect heritage character”

Boomers are:

• overhoused (living in 4–5 bedroom homes)

• under-occupied (1–2 people per dwelling)

• organized (HOA groups, neighbourhood associations)

• extremely politically active

Meanwhile, millennials:

• Rent

• Move frequently

• Have no time for city council meetings

• Are not consulted for zoning decisions

So who wins?

The people who already own the land.

The outcome is predictable:

• Supply stays constrained

• Urban cores stay exclusionary

• Prices inflate

• Millennials keep renting

NIMBYism is not just a planning debate.
It is a wealth-protection strategy.

SECTION 6: IMMIGRATION, FOREIGN CAPITAL, AND THE OPEN-DOOR POLICY THAT BENEFITED HOMEOWNERS

Millennials didn’t create this dynamic. They are simply drowning in it.

Canada dramatically increased population growth between 2015–2024:

• International students

• Temporary foreign workers

• Non-permanent residents

• High-skill immigrants

• Plus interprovincial migration into BC and Ontario

Demand surged.
Supply did not.

Who benefited?

Boomers who already owned assets in supply-constrained markets.

This is not an anti-immigration argument.
This is a structural analysis of who gains when demand spikes and supply doesn’t.

The winners:

• Homeowners

• Landlords

• Developers

• Investors

The losers:

• First-time buyers

• Renters

• Younger generations

The system redistributed wealth upward.

SECTION 7: “WHY DON’T MILLENNIALS JUST MOVE?” — THE WORST ARGUMENT IN THE BOOK

Boomers say this often.
Politicians repeat it with a straight face.

Moving:

• doesn’t fix structural affordability

• isn’t feasible when your job is in the city

• doesn’t work when every surrounding suburb is also unaffordable

• does not magically create more supply

Telling millennials to move is like telling a drowning person:

“Have you tried not drowning?”

SECTION 8: THE DOWN PAYMENT WALL

Boomers could save a down payment in a few years.

Today?

Saving $200K for a down payment is a decade-long project.

Even saving aggressively, millennials face:

• rent inflation

• childcare costs

• stagnant wages

• high cost of living

• student loans

• taxes that leave little residual income

Millennials are not bad savers.

They are saving in a system where the target moves faster than their income.

Every year they save $20K, the housing market jumps $60K.

This is not a race.
It’s a treadmill.

SECTION 9: INTERGENERATIONAL WEALTH TRANSFER — THE ONLY ESCAPE HATCH

Here is the truth nobody likes saying out loud:

The only millennials who are buying homes are those who get financial help from their parents.

Not some.
Not most.
Almost all.

The Bank of Mom and Dad is now a top-10 lender in Canada.

This is why inequality is worse within generations than between them.

A millennial with:

• boomer parents

• with paid-off homes

• in expensive cities

• receiving $150–$300K in help

…will be fine.

A millennial without that?

Zero chance.

Housing is no longer a wealth-building system.
It is a wealth-transmission system.

SECTION 10: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE DIVIDE — WHY BOOMERS DON’T “GET IT”

Boomers genuinely believe:

• They struggled just as much

• They earned their wealth solely through effort

• They sacrificed and worked for their homes

They did work hard.

But they also benefited from:

• structural tailwinds

• cheaper education

• cheaper housing

• cheaper living costs

• fewer barriers

• government policies designed to help them

Boomers see high interest rates and think:

“We suffered too.”

Millennials see the numbers and think:

“You bought at the bottom of the graph, we’re at the top.”

Each generation thinks the other is out of touch.

Both are right.

SECTION 11: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE FUTURE OF CANADA

Canada cannot sustain:

• record immigration

• minimal housing supply growth

• investor-driven demand

• zoning bottlenecks

• tax policies that inflate assets

It leads to:

• falling birth rates

• mass out-migration to cheaper provinces

• declining productivity

• aging population dependency

• shrinking middle class

• a two-tier society

• social instability

Housing is not a “market issue.”
It is a nation-building issue.

And the nation is stalling.

SECTION 12: THE SOLUTIONS (NONE OF WHICH ARE POLITICALLY EASY)

Here is the real list—no fluff, no “build more homes” sound bites.

1. Break the zoning blockades

End single-family zoning.
Legalize density.
Everywhere.

2. Reform tax policy

Not to punish boomers—but to stop inflating home values artificially.

3. Build social housing at scale

Not 500 units.
Not pilot projects.
Tens of thousands annually.

4. Heavily regulate non-resident and speculative ownership

Housing should be for living, not parking global capital.

5. Support first-time buyers with equity programs, not debt programs

6. Create a national housing strategy that is actually enforceable

And not written to please the 65+ vote.

CONCLUSION: THE GENERATIONAL CONTRACT IS BROKEN

Boomers grew wealthy through a system built for them.
Millennials are being financially crushed by one that actively works against them.

This is not whining.
This is not entitlement.
This is not “kids these days.”

This is a structural generational imbalance created by policy.

Boomers are smiling not because they’re selfish—
but because the system rewarded them.

Millennials are struggling not because they’re irresponsible—
but because the system punishes them.

Unless Canada rewrites its housing rules, the future is clear:

• More inequality

• More political instability

• More resentment

• More generational divide

Housing determines everything:

• Wealth

• Stability

• Family formation

• Social cohesion

• Economic output

• National identity

Fix housing, and you fix the generational crisis.
Ignore it, and we end up with a Canada that works for one generation only:

The one that already owns the land.