Government is why housing in Canada is unaffordable and more taxes won’t help
Opinion: A home equity tax would be but the latest example of politicians using housing as their personal ATM
Renters also need affordable housing. According to RBC, rental vacancy rates below three per cent have historically caused rents to increase. Toronto and Vancouver vacancy rates are below one per cent at the moment and the cities have rental deficits of 9,100 and 3,800 units respectively.
Rent control discourages the development of purpose-built rentals, which represented only six per cent of the 48,000 new rental households developed in Toronto from 2011 to 2016. Economist Assar Lindbeck once described rent control as “the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.” Governments should instead incentivize the development of purpose-built rentals by reducing development charges and taxes…[Read More]