It’s good to see inflation on groceries coming down.
But, like Tiff Macklem says: all governments need to get off their asses to lower the cost of housing. High interest rates have pushed the cost of real estate down a tinsy tiny bit, but it’ll take actual reform to make housing affordable.
Mandate density. Deprecate hoarded greenspace and bungalows and anything under 10 storeys (today’s magic number to eliminate mass homelessness caused by some idiot leaving his stove on) within 50km of a major center.
Transfer payment penalty for centers not served by mass transit above X people moved per hour where every station is within Y min walk of Z% of residences in buildings above 9 storey.
Even just prioritizing redevelopment of vacant/abandoned lots within cities would do a lot. The north american attitude seems to be build a second city next to the original once the original starts showing its age. Heavily tax poor land use in already dense areas like surface level parking.
As long as our population is growing, we need to ensure the appropriate amount of new affordable housing is built. Government stopped doing that in the 1990s, so we have 30 years of backlog to catch up on.
Current infill housing can be more expensive than the housing it replaces, pushing it beyond the means of many Canadians. Density isn’t enough.
Tax write-offs created in the 1970s make real estate investments more attractive than actual investments in actual companies that create actual jobs. That encourages people to treat homes as an investment, which pushes more money into the real estate market. Coincidentally, Canadian productivity has been dropping relative to our peer countries for decades. 🤷
Government has outsourced housing to the private sector, so we’re now beholden to private investors to choose to build housing. Interest rates are higher now, so private investors will slow down the building of new housing.
It’s good to see inflation on groceries coming down.
But, like Tiff Macklem says: all governments need to get off their asses to lower the cost of housing. High interest rates have pushed the cost of real estate down a tinsy tiny bit, but it’ll take actual reform to make housing affordable.
Mandate density. Deprecate hoarded greenspace and bungalows and anything under 10 storeys (today’s magic number to eliminate mass homelessness caused by some idiot leaving his stove on) within 50km of a major center.
Transfer payment penalty for centers not served by mass transit above X people moved per hour where every station is within Y min walk of Z% of residences in buildings above 9 storey.
There’s your reform.
Even just prioritizing redevelopment of vacant/abandoned lots within cities would do a lot. The north american attitude seems to be build a second city next to the original once the original starts showing its age. Heavily tax poor land use in already dense areas like surface level parking.
It’s harder than that.
As long as our population is growing, we need to ensure the appropriate amount of new affordable housing is built. Government stopped doing that in the 1990s, so we have 30 years of backlog to catch up on.
Current infill housing can be more expensive than the housing it replaces, pushing it beyond the means of many Canadians. Density isn’t enough.
Tax write-offs created in the 1970s make real estate investments more attractive than actual investments in actual companies that create actual jobs. That encourages people to treat homes as an investment, which pushes more money into the real estate market. Coincidentally, Canadian productivity has been dropping relative to our peer countries for decades. 🤷
Government has outsourced housing to the private sector, so we’re now beholden to private investors to choose to build housing. Interest rates are higher now, so private investors will slow down the building of new housing.
Or just do Land Value Tax.