The benefits of making your bed in the morning, according to science Jean-François Perrault, chief economist at Scotiabank, stated that “there is no clear way to determine what might be the optimal housing level” in a housing report released in May. Though supply constraints and insatiable demand are major issues, the majority of housing experts agree. All major political parties‘ platforms include a commitment to building tens of thousands of new houses across Canada.
The NDP promises 500,000 homes in a decade. The Liberals are promising 1.4 million over four years. The Conservatives are offering a million in three years. But like most campaign promises, the devil is in the details. The Liberals and Conservatives include the average number of new homes currently built in their totals. The NDP does not. About 286,000 new homes are currently built each year, according to the most recent data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The Liberals are also including 130,000 “revitalized” units, repairing affordable housing that is in such poor condition that it is at risk of being lost.
When that data is removed from the equation, the image looks more like this:
The NDP promises to build 50,000 new homes a year for the next ten years, the Conservatives 47,333, and the Liberals 30,000 new, affordable homes and 32,500 reclaimed over the next four years.
However, how are these homes going to be built and how many does Canada require?
The Conservatives claim they can meet their goal by improving public transportation that connects people’s homes to their places of employment, freeing up 15 percent of the federal government’s real estate portfolio for housing, and encouraging the construction of rental housing by making it easier to defer capital gains taxes when selling a rental property and reinvesting the proceeds in rental housing. Liberals promise cities $4 billion in incentives to increase annual home construction and double the allocation to the National Housing Co-Investment Fund, which provides forgivable or low-interest loans to build new or revitalized communities or affordable housing. They also intend to double the budget allocated for the conversion of vacant office and commercial space into housing, including federal and commercial buildings.
The federal land and buildings that are currently vacant or underutilized will be converted into housing as part of the NDP’s plan; the federal sales tax will be waived on new housing construction that is used to build affordable rental housing. Jean-François Perrault, the chief economist at Scotiabank, stated that “there is no clear way to determine what might be the optimal housing level” in a housing report released in May. Though supply constraints and insatiable demand are major issues, the majority of housing experts agree. Mr. Perrault asserted that the housing supply in Canada has not kept pace with population growth: in 2016, there were 427 housing units per 1,000 people in Canada, and in 2020, the supply was expected to be 424. Canada’s population increased by 1.3 million people during this time period. Approximately one-third of these homes were single-detached, with the remainder consisting of a variety of housing units, including condominiums, apartment buildings, and townhouses, according to Statistics Canada. According to Mr. Perrault, if an additional 100,000 housing units had been constructed during those years, the housing ratio would have remained stable. Canada has the fewest housing units per capita of any G7 country, according to Mr. Perrault, and it would take the construction of 1.8 million new homes to bring Canada into line with the G7 average. Beyond the ones currently under construction. There isn’t a federal party that even comes close to that number, but Perrault points out that demographics and geography vary from country to country, making it difficult to generalize. By the way, if you are looking for a high-quality hand-crafted bed for your house you can visit Hugo & Sons for more details.