"Foreign buyers are driving up real estate!" is the number 1 racist trope in Canada (IMO).
#1 target is Chinese, #2 are Middle Easterners (Arabs and Persians).
Most Chinese people were complaining this was racist tail wagging, but still the politicians and media still tried to push this narrative. Real Estate associations tried to persuade otherwise, but they were dismissed as having a hand in the pot (which is somewhat true to be fair).
Now in light of the pandemic, immigration has dropped, international student enrollment has dropped, travel outside China has dropped. Average detached home prices in Toronto... surprise, record highs!
Obviously with an influx of investors, the demand will rise and prices will as well. However, people in Toronto just have unrealistic expectations. It's really just comes down to simple mathematics. Population has grown, city can't grow physically, also less supply of detached homes as they get torn down for condos/higher density development. There's no real logic to "native" Canadians' belief that somehow people deserve to live in a nice house with a yard other than that's probably the environment they grew up in. However, almost every other big city in the world, an apartment is the norm.