The Ontario Green Party promises to address housing affordability by imposing a 20 percent tax on local buyers who own multiple properties as part of its provincial election platform.
“There are so many young people in this province wondering if they will ever be able to afford a home,” said Green Party leader Mike Schreiner, who will make the announcement Wednesday morning.
“Meanwhile, we are seeing an escalation in the number of individuals, and especially corporations, that are buying many single-family homes.”
The cost of housing in the countryside is one of the most pressing facing the Ontario government. The average house price has risen by 44% in two years. In the Greater Toronto area, the average house price rose nearly 28 percent year-on-year to $ 1.3 million in February.
To make housing more affordable, the Greens have promised to introduce the equivalent of a tax on foreign buyers or a speculation tax on non-residents if elected on June 2, except that it will apply to local buyers.
Ontario Green Party leader Mike Schreiner spoke at a news conference in Coronation Park, Toronto, on April 27, 2022. The party vowed to fight speculation to make housing more affordable for first-time buyers. (Alex Lupul / CBC)
Individual or corporate buyers who own two or more homes or apartments will have to pay 20% for the third home purchased. This will increase with each additional property.
“We need to create a demotivating factor in the market for people who speculate so that we can put home buyers on an equal footing for the first time,” Schreiner said.
According to the latest Statistics Canada statisticspeople who own multiple properties represent 31% of Ontario’s housing stock in 2019 and 2020, which has contributed to “increased competition in the already narrow real estate markets, making it difficult for future homeowners to buy a home.”
The most vulnerable
Nemoy Lewis, an assistant professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the Metropolitan University of Toronto, said the plan would help some people, but not all.
“[This plan is] useful. But it is focused only on young professionals and young families, “said Lewis.
“How will they address the most vulnerable sections of our population who need help now?”
The Greens have also announced another part of their housing strategy to build 60,000 permanent nursing homes with mental health and addiction services over the next 10 years, if elected.
They promised to fund 50 percent of the community’s housing and housing costs, while municipalities continue to maintain governance control.
Prime Minister Doug Ford’s progressive-conservative government has unveiled the first phase of its late-March plan to tackle rising house prices, which focuses on accelerating the approval of projects by the municipality and increase the tax on foreign buyers of housing up to 20 percent.
On Monday, the NDP released its own platform Monday, which includes a plan to build 100,000 social housing and 60,000 maintenance housing. He also pledged to introduce a speculation on speculation and unoccupied land as part of a broader plan to increase the affordability of housing in the province, as well as a promise to reintroduce control over apartment rents.
The Liberal Party of Ontario has said it believes in increasing the supply of housing and protecting tenants, but has not yet released a plan.
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