Things have gotten so bad that I’m willing to vote for whoever takes the most significant measures to make housing affordable. Here’s a half-baked assortment of the sort of policies that would either increase supply or reduce demand:
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Allow mixed-use medium-density housing in areas that now allow only single-family homes. Allow mixed-use high-density housing to be built in proximity to subway, train, bus stations.
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Reduce the taxes and paperwork required to (re)build a home.
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Pay several architecture firms to design a variety of housing and offer those projects free of charge to the public. A la “Vancouver Special”.
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Use public land to build social housing below market rates
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Municipalities buying old apartment buildings and renting them out below current market rates
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Maintain a central registry of who owns what housing and who lives there (necessary for the policies below). This can be used to audit abuses
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Raise property taxes on vacant housing
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Introduce a new yearly anti-speculation tax that depends on the owner of the unit:
- Canadian citizens: 0%.
- Permanent residents and people with work permits: 0%.
- Companies established in Canada:
- Single-family dwelling: 5%.
- Dwelling between two and 6 units: 2%
- Housing with more units: 0%
- All other assumptions: 10% <-- this includes foreign investors
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Halve immigration targets until housing crisis is over
Edit: 10. Eliminate parking minimums. Let business decide how much parking they need.
I concur. The real estate industry is really hindering creativity and productivity in all other industries. It may well be a vicious circle too.
Canadian government, please help diversify the country’s industries, otherwise it will become riskier and riskier to invest in Canada and for it’s entrepreneurship to run properly.
When you diversify and allocate available resources to a healthily wider spectrum of industries, all other industries will eventually need more land and properties anyway, which would healthily boost the real estate market in a constructive manner. It can also prevent structural job loss in case the property price bubble bursts.
Work smarter. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t all rush into some don’t-need-to-work-their-brains-as-hard industries like real estate.
And voters please make your vote wisely. Tell your friends about this too.
Can we change number 10 to regulate the maximum number of parking spaces allowed instead? Less cars, more people, less traffic, more transit…
- Maintain a central registry of who owns what housing and who lives there (necessary for the policies below). This can be used to audit abuses
- Raise property taxes on vacant housing
- Introduce a new yearly anti-speculation tax that depends on the owner of the unit:
- Canadian citizens: 0%.
- Permanent residents and people with work permits: 0%.
- Companies established in Canada:
- Single-family dwelling: 5%.
- Dwelling between two and 6 units: 2%
- Housing with more units: 0%
- All other assumptions: 10% <-- this includes foreign investors
Why all this bureaucracy? We can simply just shift property taxes to land value taxes. Much more equitable and it would disincentivize speculation and incentivize density. You only need to know who owns which parcel of land so its much less bureaucratic.
Land can either be a good investment, or it can be affordable; it can’t be both. A land value tax does nothing to prevent wealthy people to hoard vast amounts of land, driving the cost of land higher. Foreign investments in real estate are particularly damaging to affordability, because it makes ordinary Canadians compete against the wealthiest people around the world, a fight they can never win.
You are right, land should not be a good investment. A land value tax supports this as it decreases the value of the land, it won’t be seen as an investment. Wealthy people and investors hoarding land will only increase their tax burden and thus will not be profitable for them.
