Fredrik Gertten, director of Push, says that hedge funds can snap up real estate quickly and forcefully. "They have more money than a normal landlord, so it's kind of almost like a landlord on speed," he told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti. Leilani Farha is the United Nations' special rapporteur on adequate housing, and is featured in the documentary Push. (Janice d’Avila)She said the business model isn't just gentrification, but a financialization of housing, driven by an "unprecedented amount of wealth." "People living in these places don't know that their landlord is technically a shareholder, and that their unit is on the Toronto Stock Exchange."

Source: CBC News April 25, 2019 19:03 UTC