World : Housing Prices Rile Canadians

Asian investors who are driving up housing prices in Canada’s big cities are provoking an angry, anti-immigration attitude among Canadians, a top economist said.

“I find it amazing that people don’t seem to realize this, but the feeling out there is getting really snarky about this,” Carl Beigie told members of the Hong Kong-Canada Business Assn. Beigie said well-heeled investors from Hong Kong and other Pacific Rim countries are “driving prices up to a level that is making it extremely difficult for the rest of the country to survive. . . . There’s going to be a rebellion against this.” The average price of a home soared last year to about $300,000 in Toronto and $230,000 in Vancouver.