Where I live it's normal to live in apartments. Entire houses are pretty much inaccessible to anyone except the richest - and they are all split into apartments anyways. This is normal, I don't know why this would be an indicator of anything.
Very few Canadians actually want to live in an apartment, home ownership is the goal.
Canada's home ownership rate is currently 66.5%[1] which is higher than many countries, but it used to be higher.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220921/mc-b0...
Houses used to be cheap here (in the capital) as well and even I still remember that time, but we had to adapt to the new situation. My grandmother had a 200m^2 flat and that was normal; I have 100m^2 and am considered very rich, people in my age and family situation (2 people) usually live in 35-45m^2.
Of course everybody would love to own a whole house in the capital! It's like asking "who wants to be rich?" and being surprised that everybody does.
> home ownership is the goal.
We own the apartments, though (home ownership rate over 75%). You can't buy an apartment in Canada? Perhaps that'd be the first thing to fix...