Canada is a basket case for housing development but the only bright spots for outpacing demand with housing are Albertan cities with no rent control like Calgary and Edmonton.

Edmonton recently outpaced Toronto in housing development on an absolute basis with much lower housing prices and less than 1/5th the population!

This comment just indicates the difficulty of making accurate conclusions based on casual analysis like you're doing.

People are able to move around, to some degree, so housing prices are a function of supply across most of the nation. Or at least the desirable portions.

Rent control on the other hand has mostly local effects.

Which means, rent control can push prices down and keep them down. There is indeed a supply reduction, and prices on average will go up—but not in the rent controlled area.

It’s still a poor idea, but it requires centralised planning to avoid.

> Montreal probably has the most restrictive rent control in Canada but it's also seeing the strongest apartment development growth

A wonderful city like Montreal can drive enough demand for housing to overcome red tape, and still be building far far less than what would satisfy demand. A less attribute city with lower demand for housing may build less due to lower demand, despite having less red tape.

Trust the economists on this one.

I lived in downtown Montreal and it could just be me but the housing stock was not of the highest quality compared to most other places in Canada. Montreal as a whole feels rundown (I say this as a former Montrealer who’s lived in many places since). Cheap rent though.

I've kept hearing for a couple of years that Canada has an outrageous housing shortage, though?