As always, the Fraser Institute is shitting on ideas that could help the 99%, and saying government should rEmOvE ReD tApE.
I really want this to work. But the announcements I’ve seen for the building plan only address the supply side and ignore the problems on the demand side: people who own houses are able to pump up the cost of new houses; tax law encourages Canadians to treat their primary residence as an investment; real estate is used for money laundering (at least in some jurisdictions); mortgage fraud is a thing (at least in some jurisdictions); renovictions are used to pump the cost of rentals; and rent caps aren’t available in many jurisdictions.
Anyhow, here’s hoping the investing in modular housing succeeds, rezoning somehow lowers prices, and the feds are able to push housing starts to the moon.
Do you have a reference for that?
My understanding was that developers stopped building “high occupancy buildings” in the 1980s/1990s when tax benefits for high density housing were removed, and condos became more lucrative. Since then, condos have gotten more expensive and smaller as investors take up more of the stock (owning ~40% of condos in large cities).
Of course, we aren’t just facing a housing shortage we’re also facing an affordability crisis due to a number of factors I listed in the post. I know that the Liberals and Conservatives have pushed the line that we just need to build, but I think that is mainly because they don’t want to piss off older home owners (ie, the people who vote) by changing tax laws that would deprioritize home ownership as a retirement savings vehicle, and actively push down prices. The supply side is definitely a significant factor, but so are a number of demand factors.