Just The Facts: Liberals Give Up on Solving the Housing Crisis
Ottawa, ON – Yesterday, Canada’s housing industry issued a stark warning that confirmed what young people already knew: the Liberals have given up on solving the housing crisis and abandoned a generation who can now only dream of owning a home.
The Liberals’ latest budget has abandoned their promises to get homes built. That’s not just a Conservative point, as BILD notes, “what was once a promise to deliver 500,000 new homes annually has now become a plan that will cost 100,000 jobs.”
BILD highlighted the latest pre-construction home sales data – the leading indicator of housing construction – showing that across Canada, sales have collapsed. In the Greater Toronto Area, sales of pre-construction single-family and apartments have collapsed 82 per cent, while they plunged 81 per cent across the Greater Golden Horseshoe, compared to the 10-year average.
Meanwhile, Montreal saw pre-construction apartment sales drop 75 per cent. In Western Canada, Vancouver saw a 67 per cent plunge in pre-construction single-family and apartment sales, while Calgary and Edmonton experienced a 40 per cent and 33 per cent drop, respectively.
The Liberals’ new housing crisis has made it impossible for buyers to buy, builders to build and sellers to sell. This is the direct result of the Liberal failure to scrap the taxes on homebuilding that drive up costs. Their GST rebate only applies to “a very small fraction of the market” and will “continue to erode affordability for Canadians in large urban centres.”
Furthermore, the Liberals have now abandoned their promise to tackle development charges, which can account for up to 25 per cent of the cost of a new home. The Canadian Homebuilders Association notes that “over the past two decades, these taxes have soared by 700 per cent, pricing countless Canadians out of the market,” while BILD says the budget is “not an actionable plan to reduce municipal housing fees with any sense of urgency.”
With homebuilders unable to afford to build new homes, workers are getting laid off. The Canadian Homebuilders Association reports that 41 per cent of builders surveyed are laying off workers, while in Ontario, that number is 64 per cent.
As their budget “offered limited concrete measures to support Canadians currently aspiring to achieve affordable homeownership,” the Canadian Real Estate Association warns the Liberals risk “slamming the door on homeownership for many.”
Only Conservatives will fight to restore the promise of home ownership for a generation that has already sacrificed enough. We want to end the federal sales tax on new homes under $1.3 million, tie federal infrastructure dollars to homebuilding, cut building taxes by half, and axe the capital gains tax on reinvestment to get the housing we need built now.