Young Canadians can no longer aspire to own a home because prices are too far out of reach, says the president and CEO of Canadian Apartment Properties REIT.

For anyone under the age of 35, the “dream of owning is gone,” Mark Kenney told Canada Kick-off conference attendees in Toronto this week.

“We’re not producing the homes fast enough,” said Kenney during a lively panel discussion on housing.

Kenney was referring to a large demand-supply gap prevalent in several markets during what many government and industry leaders have described as Canada’s housing crisis.

“This [situation] has completely smashed the Canadian dream of homeownership,” said Kenney.

But Ray Wong, a leading analyst with market intelligence firm Altus Group, disagreed with Kenney’s claim.

“I don’t think it’s dead but I think it needs a little bit of help,” said Wong in an interview with Connect following the event hosted by Connect at CIBC Square.

In Wong’s view, the Canadian dream has only died in certain markets.

“I think it depends on some of the demographics and income levels,” said Wong. “I think we’ve we’ve taken a bit of a hit on housing ownership in larger markets.”

Kenney contended that household consolidation is occurring like never before across Canada as several people in their 30s share crowded apartments or live in their parents’ homes.

“This is a terrible thing for the CEO of Canada’s largest rental company to be saying, but I don’t want to steal the homeownership dream from our kids,” Kenney said. “I think that that freedom and optionality is something that we have to keep alive in the country, quite frankly.”

Kenney stressed that he is an advocate for renting and believes that rental living provides tremendous flexibility to enjoy life and work in different places.

He contended that the housing development opportunity is “fantastic,” due to the low supply and high demand brought on largely by increased immigration. But developers are struggling to make the financial numbers work due to increasing construction and development costs.

“Development fees have tripled in Toronto,” he said. “So, there’s a huge tsunami of challenge, beyond just nimbyism, now that the developer community has to get through to get at this wonderful opportunity of long-term housing investment.”

Hero Mohtadi, Dream Unlimited’s vice-president of residential operations and asset management, essentially agreed with Kenney. She said the current situation provides an opportunity for the industry and governments take an internal look at Canada’s housing system and find ways to improve it.

“I’m an immigrant myself, but we [have] more people coming to Canada than we have time to build,” she said. “So, I think, fundamentally, if something is to change, we do have to come back to the table. And, we have to take a look at the system to see where it’s broken, and how we can actually collaborate.

“That’s a lot easier said than done. But fundamentally, I think the whole system needs to have a very deep review in order for us to be able to move forward.”

Kenney likened the current situation to the one in the years following World War II, when many soldiers returned home from battle. He called on Ottawa re-examine what the federal government did in terms of providing housing for them and see how the effort can be modernized.

Instead of finding ways to build bungalows as the government did then, Ottawa must determine how to build multi-family projects, he suggested. Kenney also called for the creation of municipal utility systems, like one which exists in Dallas, that can build much needed mass volumes of infrastructure faster and more affordably across Canada.

Panelist Natalie Leibowitz, head of finance and investments at Toronto-based Altree Developments, countered Kenney’s argument by suggesting that the Canadian dream needs to change.

“In the U.S., in Europe, no one cares about homeownership; everyone rents,” she said, referring to people in their 30s. “That mindset has not yet come to Canada.”

She contended that “there is a huge broken system here” whereas European markets do not face the same impediments to housing development.

“But if you shift [Canadians’] mindset to rental, and the municipalities and the federal and provincial governments make them work, you can have an amazing rental market,” said Leibowitz.

To make housing more affordable, said Kenney, governments need to find a solution for Canadians’ “income distress.”

“The private sector isn’t supposed to solve income distress in Canada,” he said. “The private sector is supposed to be delivering housing to Canada and find the market that it meets.”

He contended that the private sector has taken on the burden of delivering social housing in Canada and has become “demonized” because it can’t deliver sufficient supply due to high development and construction costs.

“There’s too much talk, in my mind, about this whole topic of affordability, and not enough talk of income distress and the income problems that we have,” said Kenney.

He also called on real estate industry leaders to become more engaged with local, provincial and federal politicians in order to get their concerns heard and acted upon.

Kenney was “very sad” to see that only 25.71% of voters cast ballots in the recent Mississauga, Ont., municipal by-election for a new mayor and councillor.

“We’ve lost engagement in this country on political issues,” he said. “But most importantly, we’ve lost engagement on the housing file.”

Pictured: Mark Kenney, president and CEO of CAPREIT.