Buying a house (even if speculators are taken out of the mix) is a huge undertaking for many people, especially those on a limited income, and many simply will not be able to afford to purchase a house. Remove the ability to rent out a house/condo at a reasonable profit and instead of making thousands of houses available to the low-wage worker, you will probably just end up with a housing slump, as potential landlords don't want to buy/build to rent out, and tenants can't afford to buy on their limited salaries.
"Remove the ability to rent out a house/condo at a reasonable profit..." I'm saying you tax them. That isn't removing the ability to rent out for a reasonable profit. They should tax at such a rate that buying a house/condo to rent out is still profitable and sees reasonable real estate value growth per year (ie: the province/country average), but not at the levels of 20 or 30% growth like we're seeing now, which is what's driving the speculation market. Landlords will still derive profit from paid rents and from increasing property value like every other landlord in the country..
The other issue is dealing with multi-unit apartment blocks... there you have an owner who is renting out multiple units. If your plan is to punish landlords who don't live in the buildings they own, then what happens to those apartment blocks?
See my answer above.
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