No doubt "urban containment" is part of the problem, but an even  bigger one - which Ms. Wente doesn't mention - is restrictive zoning and artificially low population densities even in the city. It's the single biggest restriction there is on "the free market," but pro-business people generally don't talk about it because they also tend to be home owners - and people in the best neighbourhoods fear higher densities will damage their housing values. Here in Germany, where I have lived many years, I have never seen a neighborhood of exclusively single-family homes. Even the absolute best neighborhoods have a mix - big villas interspersed with small apartment buildings (maybe 6 to 8 units). They're elegant apartments. If anything, they add a bit of variety to the streetscape and bring more life to the area. And because they reduce density, prices in even the biggest cities here - a much more populous country than Canada, with a booming economy - don't reach the Toronto level.