MNI:Canada Says Hot Housing Mkt Needs "Supply, Supply, Supply”

Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday one of her top priorities is increasing affordable housing, the third top policy maker in recent days shifting emphasis from years of unsuccessful efforts to restrain demand as households took big mortgages and sent prices soaring.

Young families and immigrants are struggling to find homes, Freeland said at a conference in downtown Toronto, where the average detached property price jumped 21% in the last year to CAD1.8 million. When it comes to solutions, "First and foremost that means supply, supply, supply," she said.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem and the country's top banking regulator Peter Routledge have also recently said supply appears to be the major need. Governments in the last decade tightened mortgage lending rules and warned buyers about a speculative bubble as household debt overtook the country's GDP. MNI earlier reported the government would probably let this housing boom ride without a major clampdown.