As housing prices climb and the dream of owning a home fades even further for many Canadians, a real estate broker says there are many factors driving up the prices.

For one, supply is critically low, said Nasma Ali, founder and broker at One Group.

“There’s a lot of factors that come into play when we have a very low supply,” she told BNN Bloomberg Thursday.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported housing starts for the month of May dropped 23 per cent compared to a month prior and the annual rate of urban starts fell 30 per cent.

This comes a year after the CMHC reported that Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2023 for the real estate market to reach affordability.

COVID-19 also played a role, Ali argues, as home prices were able to skyrocket during that time frame.

“It really scared buyers and then when prices started to come down a little bit, then the rates scared them,” she said.

Federal and provincial governments have instituted several measures meant to drive down prices, including a ban on foreign homebuyers and a savings account for first-time buyers, to name a few.

Unfortunately, Ali worries those measures will do little to address the issue.

“Especially in Toronto, we’ve seen a lot of focus be on housing being investments,” she said.

“I just don’t see any of these having a real impact.”