Yousaf Iqbal
Yousaf Iqbal links housing policy decisions to how the market actually behaves, showing what measures like Canada’s foreign buyer ban mean for prices, sales and the condo segment in practice. As a recurring opinion contributor to Real Estate Magazine, he writes from the vantage point of leading a real estate business focused on the Canadian market, turning macro shifts into concrete implications for brokers, investors and developers. His work concentrates on demand, financing and regulation rather than headlines alone, using data points and recent market cycles to map where risks and opportunities sit in Canada’s housing system. He covers real estate with an emphasis on Canadian housing policy, affordability pressures and the operational realities of running a brokerage team.
Housing policy and the foreign buyer ban
The foreign buyer ban is a central thread in Iqbal’s Real Estate Magazine columns, which follow the policy from its introduction through to its scheduled expiry and its effects on the condo market. In a 2022 opinion piece he wrote that the ban would come into force “with a whisper rather than a bang” and argued it would have little direct impact on home prices. Later work revisits the issue after several years of experience, describing how the ban has had a negligible impact on prices but contributed to a deep downturn and a frozen condo market in parts of the country. Across these articles he treats the foreign buyer ban as one factor inside a larger system, rather than a stand‑alone solution to affordability. He places the policy alongside zoning rules, financing conditions and demand pressures to show how changes in one lever reverberate through the broader housing landscape.
Market cycles, bubbles and affordability
Iqbal writes about housing cycles and bubble risk, tying rapid pandemic‑era price gains to structural drivers such as cheap financing and constrained supply instead of attributing them solely to immigration or foreign buying.
He has described Canada’s housing market as one of the most unaffordable in the world, noting that at one point the national average home price was roughly ten times median after‑tax household income. In that analysis he highlights how stringent zoning and easy credit pushed household debt higher year after year, creating conditions for prices to soar even without new foreign buyers or permanent residents.
Earlier Real Estate Magazine columns flagged concerns around a real estate bubble, adding historical perspective on how these dynamics build and unwind over time. Outside the magazine, his company blog posts track sales, price trends and signs of stabilisation in Canada’s housing market, offering short analytical updates on momentum and turning points.
Brokerage teams and industry practice
Alongside policy and macro analysis, Iqbal writes directly for brokerage leaders and agents on how to build and manage sales teams. In his Real Estate Magazine column on “Building a team?
Why and how to do it,” he focuses on the reasons to scale a team and the practical steps for doing so, from role design to support structures. The piece emphasises recruitment, training and culture as levers for performance, framing team‑building as a strategic choice rather than a purely administrative task.
This strand of his work connects his market commentary with day‑to‑day industry practice, showing how brokers can organise themselves to navigate the conditions he describes in his housing analyses.
Industry role and thought leadership
Iqbal’s Real Estate Magazine bylines consistently note that he leads IQI Canada, the arm of real estate technology group Juwai IQI focused on the Canadian market.
That role anchors his commentary in the realities of running a business exposed to shifts in financing, demand and regulation, and it informs his focus on how policies translate into transaction activity and project viability. Through company blogs and newsletters, he extends this perspective into regular updates on sales recoveries, price movements and early signs of stabilisation, giving industry readers a concise view of current market signals.
Taken together, his magazine columns and corporate writing position him as a practitioner who explains Canada’s housing system for an audience that works inside it, with a recurring emphasis on policy design, affordability and operational execution.
4 more real estate journalists.
Addie Morfoot
Addie Morfoot covers how real estate, culture and media meet, focusing on people, rules and the way homes shape a life. She reports for The New York Times on housing and lifestyle, from personal narratives about finding a home after loss to features on how short-term rental policy affects everyday owners and renters. She writes real estate stories that connect laws and regulations to the choices available to ordinary residents in specific towns and cities. She is a regular contributor to the Sunday Routine franchise, following actors, comedians and designers through a typical day and showing how settings like homes, studios and subway cars shape daily experience. She also has a long track record covering documentary film and the entertainment business, including legal questions around fair use, changing docu-series formats, festival premieres and financing. Her portfolio spans more than two decades of work for The New York Times, Variety, The Wall Street Journal and Crain’s New York Business.
Alcynna Lloyd
Alcynna Lloyd is a real estate reporter and economic journalist at Business Insider whose work is distinct for treating housing as a core economic system people must navigate. She covers how housing markets, costs, and mobility shape everyday life decisions, connecting data on rents, home prices, and city trends with stories of people managing debt, multigenerational living, and moves abroad. Her beat centers on housing costs, renters, and household strategies, following renters pushing back against landlords and tracking “desperate home sellers” using concessions in unaffordable markets. A second strand of her coverage focuses on relocation, remote work, and cheap cities as everyday economic strategies. She regularly uses rankings and lists, such as best and worst states to buy a home and Rising Stars of Real Estate, and reads city housing and migration shifts as signs of broader economic change.
Alec Lazenby
Alec Lazenby covers how provincial politics and government decisions shape housing, real estate and the wider social fabric. He reports for The Vancouver Sun from the provincial legislature. His work examines HousingHub, middle-income rentals, affordability, stalled projects, empty condos, developer layoffs, municipal housing targets and land use. He also covers health, addiction, safer supply, involuntary care, water rights, resource management, Indigenous rights and Crown land. Lazenby connects policy language to specific buildings, rents, projects, services and people. He explains financial, regulatory and market pressures, then follows how institutions, professionals, developers, municipalities and affected communities respond. His reporting tests government goals against practical outcomes and shows how policy reversals, construction costs, interest rates and political accountability shape housing and public life.
Amir Ali
Amir Ali links housing, disputes, and oddball neighbourhood stories in case-based, street-level reporting for Daily Hive. He holds a senior editorial and writing role, listed on the masthead as part of Vancouver leadership and described as a staff writer. His core beat is real estate, especially the rental market and housing affordability, tracking rent ranges, market shifts, and how pressures land on people trying to stay housed. He also covers crime, civil tribunals, and mental health, explaining decisions and conflicts in plain language that focuses on timelines, behaviour, and outcomes. Ali writes offbeat hyperlocal features, traffic and transport disruptions, business, food, and general local news, often turning infrastructure, small businesses, and civic systems into tangible stories. A former radio producer, he brings tight pacing and clear stakes to written pieces and maintains an active social media presence as a broadcaster and writer.