The government will introduce a bill aimed at delaying town-planning approvals that slows down housing construction and raises prices, a senior provincial knowledgeable official said.
The bill “lays the groundwork” for what the official described as the government’s long-term strategy for tackling the root causes of Ontario’s housing problem.
While high housing prices are not new to the greater Toronto area, the cost of buying a home almost anywhere in Ontario is also high.
In 2021, the average home sale price in the county was 44 percent higher than two years earlier, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.
The legislation is due to be tabled Wednesday by Home Affairs and Housing Secretary Steve Clark.
A senior government official says the new legislation coming Wednesday will target delays in town-planning approvals that are slowing down housing construction and raising prices. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
“The bill really focuses on making the planning process work better, smoother and faster,” the official said. The legislation also includes measures to facilitate the construction of affordable housing and maintain Ontario’s existing stock of affordable housing, the official added.
The measures come after a provincial-appointed working group on affordable housing urged the government to set a target of 1.5 million new homes to be built over the next decade. This goal is twice the current rate of new construction.
To build more houses faster, the task force recommended to the province to impose sweeping changes in the cities. Proposals include increasing density in detached neighborhoods, reducing time spent on public housing consultations and imposing deadlines for housing approvals.
Ford has blamed high housing prices in part on city councils moving too slowly to approve housing developments. At a summit in January with mayors of Ontario’s 30 largest cities, he announced a $ 45 million fund to streamline approvals.
The panel’s report did not fit well with many of the mayors and councils, especially in the GTA suburban towns.
This could affect the Ford Government’s willingness to proceed with the recommendations, as the 905 seats are expected to be a major battleground in the upcoming provincial elections and could ultimately influence the outcome.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the Ford government announced that it was raising Ontario speculative tax on home buyers to 20% and extending the tax scope to cover the entire province. Since its inception in 2017, the foreign buyer tax has been 15 percent and applied only in the densely populated Greater Golden Horseshoe area. (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
The official said the bill reflects a balance between what the task force recommended and comments received by the government from municipalities and the public.
City councils “were sincere in their involvement in policy planning and development in the panel report,” the official said, adding that the government recognizes that it must work with municipalities to get things done.
It is not at all certain whether the measures taken by the government on Wednesday will have a short-term impact on the purchase price of a house in Ontario.
The panel’s recommendations focused almost entirely on boosting housing supply in the coming years.
Some real estate analysts and opposition parties are urging the government to tackle rising demand. Recent sales figures show that 25 percent of Ontario home purchases are made by investors who own more than one property.
In 2021, the average home sale price in Ontario was 44 percent higher than two years earlier, according to statistics from the Canadian Real Estate Association. (Patrick Morrell / CBC)
Late Tuesday afternoon, the Ford government announced that it was stepping up Ontario’s foreign buyer tax on residential real estate to 20 percent and extending its scope to the entire province.
Ontario’s “non-resident speculation tax” was introduced in 2017 by the then liberal government of Kathleen Wynne at a time when house prices were rising sharply. It had a significant impact, pushing prices down in 2018.
The tax rate was 15 percent for purchases by non-residents in the GTA and in an area of southern Ontario that stretches from Peterborough to Barrie, Waterloo and the Niagara Peninsula.
The new rate of 20 percent and its implementation throughout the province takes effect immediately.
Opposition parties New Democrats and Greens are proposing additional speculative taxes as well as vacancies to try to curb demand from investors who do not live in the homes they buy.
“This government was four years old and finally found out that there is a housing crisis,” NDP leader Andrea Horwath told a news conference on housing in Stratford last week.
Horwath dismissed the task force’s recommendations as “almost one side of the coin” for focusing on offering housing in the market.
