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That could have consequences far down the line. People who are in their 50s and 60s now have had decades to pay off their mortgages, freeing up income to put into their children’s education and retirement planning. Most millennials in their 20s and 30s won’t be so fortunate.

“If they don’t become homeowners until they’re 40, the point at which they can pay for these other things really gets pushed further into the distance, so that I think it will have a potentially negative effect on savings by Canadian households in that time, and also on consumption,” he said. “I think the economic effects are not good from that process.”

To MacLennan, that suggests that government may have a role in helping the younger generation to become homeowners sooner rather than later.

“The first measures that have been undertaken recently to cool the housing market in Vancouver and Toronto by being more restrictive in the ability to take out mortgages, I think actually they act against the interest of younger people and make it more difficult for them to take out a mortgage while interest rates are still low,” he said.

Part of the issue in Canada, according to MacLennan, is that the federal government has the most flexible tax base while cities feel the real impact when there’s a lack of affordable housing.

“The governments that have the problems don’t have the resources,” he said. “That’s what Canada’s problem is: realigning the resources that accrue to the federal government back to deal with the problems.”