This article misses a very prominent issue in Canadian housing, and more so, in the condo market - the use (read: abuse) of assignment clauses. Not only were investors buying preconstruction condos to rent out, they were also effectively buying a futures-contract on condos with the ability to sell the condo prior to completion. Often times, realtors themselves would hoard preconstruction condos and assign them to their own clients at a large profit...depending on the structure of the deposits required, seeing 50-100% return on capital was not uncommon and they did not need to qualify for a mortgage. This structure was doomed to fail; you often see now that many investors are unable to close (really, they never intended to close).