The market has been hit by a confluence of policies: Ontario's Fair Housing Policy, including a foreign buyers» tax aimed at cooling the market; a new mortgage stress test targeted at protecting Canadians from
dangerously high household debt levels; and the Bank of Canada's moves to increase interest rates.
In particular, a massive overhang of debt from a decade - long boom when economic growth was based on unsustainable
household borrowing, unrealistic house prices,
dangerously high banking leverage, and a failure of governments to put their public finances in order.