HOUSING & THE ELECTION: PART 2

Have you ever walked out of a movie and thought, ‘there’s two hours of my life I’m not getting back!’?

As the results of our 44th federal election were announced this week, I wonder how many people are thinking just that.

$600 million dollars, 36 days, and nothing really changed politically – at least from a federal stance.

One thing that may come out of this all: the federal government is now more or less paying attention to the real estate market. They’ll say they were before, but really up until this election, anything to do with housing was framed around giving more incentives to home buyers. I think the politicians finally understand that throwing money at the demand side of the equation is like throwing gasoline on a forest fire.

It’s true that the feds really don’t have a lot of tools to influence the local real estate markets. Development and home construction are really the purview of municipalities and the province. However, the federal government is the largest landlord and landowner in the country, and has a significant number of properties that are surplus to their needs. Using those properties to encourage affordable housing would be a move that could take a lot of the stress out of our market.

We’ve noted before that the rate of new construction and household creation has fallen below the growing demand for homes from up and coming generations, as well as immigration. This is not a problem that will diminish anytime soon.

A thought: repurpose surplus federal land and buildings, and provide municipalities with the funding to streamline development approvals. Make it easier to redevelop a site or create more housing through the planning process. Use that funding to help communities identify new opportunities, infill, or repurposing. The builders and developers want to build homes. Let them do that by making it easier to get approvals, use new techniques and materials. I think we’ll find that given the opportunity, the market will find ways to quickly meet the demand without having to create massive new subdivisions.

Maybe, just maybe, one of the positive outcomes from this COVID-era election will be the various levels of government and industry working together and actually finding some long term solutions to our housing situation.

If that were to happen, I’d say money well spent on the election.

THE PAST WEEK IN THE GUELPH REAL ESTATE MARKET

Another strong and steady week as we head into the fall market. Take a look at the full key week comparison below:

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