Canadian mortgages and the banking system are different from the U.S. - I should know, I wrote "Why Banks Fail" and learned this at that time, not to mention doing business plans in all CAN provinces.

The situation here in the US is not so much that the vacant properties would ever be available to a lower income person. They are owned by wealthy or at least financially stable people and are not available for rent in general. There are at least 20% homes in the SW Florida community where I live that are owned by Canadians, by the way. Many of them are coming and using them for the first time in 3 years, because of COVID. So, a person owning a vacation or second home, would not want to rent it to anyone, typically, though some use them as AirBnB etc. when they are not using them. Some of the big mansions on our barrier islands here are available as high-priced vacation rentals, managed with property managers, professional cleaners, and security cameras.

Wealthy people or investment consortia use vacant properties as tax write offs. Look on my profile for the article I wrote about REITS yesterday. It is a smarter financial deal for a REIT to rent properties for the highest possible rent (which rules out the lower income - a group increasing fast). If they have a vacant property, they write off the loss and use depreciation of property and assets to reduce or eliminate tax burdens:

https://www.mrvaluation.com/cost-segregation-reits#:~:text=Yes!,while%20decreasing%20its%20taxable%20income.