Canadian Banks Financing Mass Immigration Lobby - "Canadian banks – Bank of Montreal, ScotiaBank and TD Bank – are funding the mass-immigration advocacy group Century Initiative, whose goal is to increase Canada’s population by 60 million people by 2100. Why would banks support this lobby group? Because the resulting housing inflation – home price increases – produces scores of billions of dollars annually in profit for them."
Who Funds the Century Initiative?
FIRST READING: Trudeau’s utterly daunting promise to immediately build an Alberta's worth of new homes - "what Ottawa has just pitched as a pre-budget bauble is one of the most mammoth promises ever issued by a Canadian federal government. In terms of cost, effort and raw logistics, building 3.9 million homes in just seven years would easily rank as one of the most awesome expenditures of national effort outside of the world wars. It is 552,857 new homes constructed every year for seven consecutive years, in a country that already struggles to build half that each year... The 552,857 figure is daunting even by the standards of the 1970s, when the federal government spurred a massive boom in homebuilding, a record that hasn’t been topped since. At the peak of that boom in 1974, Canada was able to roll out an all-time high of 257,243 new homes. Even if that figure could be scaled up in proportion to Canada’s current population size, it would still come out to just 411,000 new homes. And that was in an era where homebuilding was relatively easy; building codes were lighter, municipalities were more permissive and Canadian cities were surrounded by cheap farmland that could be easily converted into subdivisions... The figure of 3.9 million homes is not pulled out of thin air. It appears to be based on a 2023 estimate by the CMHC which found that Canada would need to build “about 3.5 million additional housing units by 2030 to restore affordability.” Affordability, in that case, is defined as restoring housing prices to what they were in 2004; effectively the last year when Canadian real estate prices were still a reflection of local incomes. But that would be 3.5 million “additional” housing units on top of Canada’s anticipated rate of new builds. So even if the new federal plan meets its target of 2 million “net new homes,” it’s still 1.5 million short of the CMHC estimate... or a plan pledging unprecedented rates of home-building in record time, it wasn’t hard for Moffatt to find areas where the feds had left money on the table. For instance, it had very little to address skyrocketing rates of fees and charges driving up development costs"
Concerns raised about proposed Newmarket 9-storey condo - "The building would be on a major road and transit corridor, help the town fulfil intensification policies and contain some units deemed affordable, said Rosemarie Humphries, president of Humphries Planning Group Inc., which represents Mosaik. But others are worried. Neighbours already had concerns when a six-storey, 147-unit condo building was approved for the site in 2021, resident James Wagstaff said in a letter to council. Stressing he strongly opposes the now-larger proposal, Wagstaff said a nine-storey building “is completely out of character with the existing neighbourhood and would have a detrimental impact on the surrounding homes, particularly those on the north side of Penn Avenue. The towering structure would cast shadows, potentially diminishing the quality of life for residents, and affecting property values.”... Many are concerned that means vehicles leaving the condo building will create traffic headaches on surrounding residential streets, despite assurances from Humphries that a change to the signalization pattern at the traffic lights at Davis and Longford should help alleviate the problem. The increased traffic on Penn would pose serious safety risks, especially for seniors in the area, Wagstaff said. Howard Friedman, director of planning with HBR Planning Centre, the planning consultant for a numbered Ontario company that owns the land where Tim Hortons stands, said the restaurant is concerned about the effect on customers, particularly those using the drive-thru."
Of course, there were people who didn't understand the idea of a franchise, thinking that the Tim Hortons was owned by the main company
Canadians Fleeing Toronto & Vancouver Accelerated To A Record Pace: BMO
You can't all have your proverbial single family homes, and afford to live in one too. : r/canadahousing - "It genuinely boggles my mind how many users on this sub come on here to bitch about housing prices, only to turn around and also bitch about increased density in Canadian cities. The expectation of detached SFH for all this country seems to have is an outdated and to be frank, extemely harmful leftover from the postwar - mid 90s era of Canada. We are currently living through some of the most rapid urbanization in human history. The fact is, worldwide, that most people want to live in cities. This goes for Canada too. 82% of Canadians now live in cities, as opposed to just over 50% in the 1940s. Immigrants to cities are not just coming from outside Canada, they are coming from inside Canada too. This means people are densifiying. And housing needs to follow suit. This doesn't mean everyone has to live in a "shoebox in the sky" but it does mean enough of those people want to live in that style of housing that it warrants being built. You can see this pattern in so much of Europe and Asia, where cities both densifiy and grow outwards when possible, creating bustling city centres for those who want or need to live there, and large metro areas that gradually turn from ultra dense, to urban, to suburban, and finally rural communities as one gets father away from the city, all well connected with by both roads and transit. The problem is Canada has decided to basically just build cities made up of extemely urban downtown's, surrounded by low density suburbs, and exclusively build out. This is simply not sustainable, eventually suburbs get too far from urban areas to be practical, not to mention how expensive suburbia is to maintain compared to higher density areas. Not to mention slow. We need to start densifiying our current low density and suburban neighborhoods, ALONGSIDE building new ones. This solves the distance issue too, as the new suburbs will still be near the now urbanized old ones."
"our building codes don’t allow us to build space efficient condos. Due to our fire codes we need to have 2 exit points in all buildings. This severely restricts our ability to build anything but long dark corridors and units along that corridor with windows on one side. This type of layout makes it very difficult to build anything more than a 2bed2bath sub 1000sqft apartment. And 2bed 2bath is not family friendly. Europe and Asia do not have these restrictions and their buildings have central stairway with units on all 4 corners make high density living much more livable with better unit configurations, more space and more light."
"Montreal also allows one of the exit points to be on the exterior of the building, allowing the same sort of development as in Europe or Asia."
"And this is the reason Montreal still has relatively affordable housing for a city of its size. Montreal also has a lot more missing middle housing."
Toronto’s housing crisis of 1922 was rooted in policies that still make homes unaffordable in 2022 - The Globe and Mail - "On May 14, 1912, motivated by moral concerns, the City of Toronto passed By-Law No. 6061, which meant no apartment buildings could be built on the majority of the city’s residential streets... Apartment-dwelling families were expected to have fewer children, and this was considered an unethical constraint on the natural order. Meanwhile, dwellings that offered in-house kitchen and cleaning services were seen as degrading the traditional role of a wife... by the end the century’s first decade, Dr. Dennis wrote in his landmark 1989 research paper, Toronto’s First Housing Boom, the city’s directory listed almost 50 such buildings creeping into single-family home neighbourhoods. This raised concerns about property values and privacy, as well as the loss of home ownership as a priority (apartments were typically rented). City of Toronto Archives Experts have often noted that the turning point was set in 1911 by physician Charles Hastings with the publication of his report exposing the unsanitary conditions of those living in the Ward, the inner-city slum located next to City Hall. Fearing that Toronto might fall victim to the scourge of these “human packing cases,” so rife in New York, Dr. Dennis wrote, the report reinforced the belief that shared dwellings were immoral and not fit for Toronto. “If Toronto becomes a city of closely-packed tenements,” one Globe journalist wrote on April 27, 1912, “it will become a city of stunted children and of unhappy adults. Its morals will suffer as well as its health.”... “It’s the core reason why Toronto doesn’t have a historic character of medium density throughout its historic core, like the four-storey buildings seen in American cities,” Ms. Abramowicz said. The policy was generally quite effective, she said; for decades, much of the city saw very little apartment development... “We haven’t really shifted from the planning approach the City of Toronto took in 1912,” Ms. Abramowicz said. “I think it’s to our detriment.” While experts agree that By-Law No. 6061 has left a mark on the city’s building story, many argue its more significant legacy is the attitude it initiated. According to Richard Harris, an urban historical geographer at McMaster University, Toronto’s early 20th-century policies led to its ingrained resistance to development in residential neighbourhoods... “The urban reform movement stopped neighbourhood destruction, but it then entrenched an anti-development mindset,” he said. “To me, that is the root of present-day opposition to the missing middle.”"
Why Toronto has a record number of condos for sale - "“The provincial government has been throwing gasoline on that fire by cutting development charges,” said Perks (Parkdale — High Park), “which further incentivizes investor and speculator parts of the market.” Perks said he finds it difficult to articulate his outrage on this issue. “The province’s solution to Ontario’s housing crisis has been to get rid of planning laws, development fees, the right of the public to have a conversation about the kind of city they want and magically it will be fixed,” he said. “Well, here we are at the end of the story and we’ve got empty condo units and people who can’t afford to live in the city. They were completely wrong.”"
Clearly, regulation that increases costs and makes it hard to build big condos is not to blame, because regulation is always good and the private sector is always evil and greedy, and increasing developer fees will make housing more affordable
Fixing the broken landlord and tenant dispute resolution system could help address affordability - "Data compiled by Tahmeed Shafiq , a Toronto-based researcher, found that, on average, it took 342 days for an eviction for non-payment case to be resolved. According to the ombudsman, as of March 2023, it took up to nine months to schedule a hearing for a landlord applicant, while tenant applicants might have to wait as long as two years. The delays at LTB have disproportionately impacted landlords. According to the ombudsman’s report, landlords filed the most complaints (84 per cent), while tenants filed only 12 per cent. As of November 2021, it took the LTB three months to process an application, and scheduling a hearing for rent collection or the eviction of a defaulting renter took an additional 66.5 days."
Left wingers will claim that landlords make the most complaints not because tenants abuse the system more but because slumlords are trying to exploit tenants
B.C. to allow multiplexes on single-family lots: What you need to know - "On June 30, the provincial government will mandate that all large municipalities in B.C. allow more residential units to be built on lots now zoned for single-family homes or duplexes. Bill 44 requires municipalities with at least 5,000 people to change their zoning bylaws to permit up to four units on a standard residential lot, and up to six units on a standard lot near public transit. There are 191 municipalities in B.C., of which 86 have fewer than 5,000 residents... Off-street parking will not be required if the development is close to public transit."
Curtains for protected views? Vancouver may end ‘view cones’ to make room for housing - "The City of Vancouver is looking at bringing additional housing to neighbourhoods but it may come at the expense of some beautiful views. Vancouver city council will review a staff report that explores removing protected views so more housing can be built. “View cones” have been a critical feature of Vancouver’s development policy since 1989. The cones were designed to preserve ocean and mountain views for specific locations within the city, and have limited the size and location of construction projects... Not everyone is on board with the proposal. Melody Ma, who is part of Save Our Skyline YVR and Save Chinatown YVR, posted on X: “Vancouver’s new director of planning thinks it’s ok to shrink Vancouver’s iconic postcard public mountain views like this one from Cambie St, to almost nothing. “Once public views are destroyed, you can never get it back. You should be ashamed.”"
Damn greedy developers keeping housing expensive!
I went to an exhibition about Chinese people in Canada, and they talked about how locals used to protest against Chinese immigration, but they also interviewed a Chinese activist who was protesting housing densification. Ironic
Curtains for protected views? Vancouver may end ‘view cones’ to make room for housing : r/britishcolumbia - "They're what keeps some of these units psychologically habitable. I know that sounds like high end bougie luxury, but very few of these west end/coal harbour dwellings are actually luxury suites of high income earners. There's a lot of families crammed into600 sq ft flats and six roommates doing shift work/living in these concrete cells without a/c. Sitting on the patio and seeing a sliver of the water when you're paying $1200/month to share a mattress really keeps some folks going, and contrary to popular belief they're not all fat bankers and vacationing foreigners. They're the people who keep the city going. Sure, fucking with the view may depreciate the units and make the resale value more accessible. But are working class folks really going to buy their studio apartments or are more investment firms just going to clean up and keep charging the same rent?"
Curtains for protected views? Vancouver may end ‘view cones’ to make room for housing : r/britishcolumbia - "Some of these view cones and corridors were designed by Arthur Erickson. It's not for developers to benefit but for locals to. Wreck them and the they don't come back. It's not about Nimby, this is about good urban planning and livable spaces."
Curtains for protected views? Vancouver may end ‘view cones’ to make room for housing : r/britishcolumbia - "I see the opposite. The view cones are public access to the views. When you build in front of them, only the people in key view-facing apartments will get the view. They are stealing the mountains from the public to reserve them for the rich."
B.C. to require new homes to be adaptable for disabilities, prompting concern from developers - The Globe and Mail - "Developers say the new rules will add potentially tens of thousands to the cost of all news homes because ensuring all builds can accommodate someone with a wheelchair or walker, for example, will require bigger kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms, among other changes. B.C. is the first province to make such a sweeping requirement in its building code – one that is being heralded by disability advocates. But builders’ concerns have so alarmed the City of Vancouver, which has its own building code, that council recently voted to push implementing the changes by a year to May, 2026. “It can mean having to increase the size of a unit by 5 to 10 per cent. Adding costs means you can’t build what people can afford,” said Anne McMullin, the president of the Urban Development Institute, the advocacy organization for the building industry... a report by Vancouver’s city manager to council two weeks ago recommended delaying harmonization with the B.C. code over concerns the new requirements could tip already marginal projects in the city, beset by high interest rates and constructions costs, into the no-can-do zone – the last thing councillors want amid pressure from the province and the public to get new housing built. “By potentially increasing project costs and resulting in fewer dwelling units, the new requirements could add to these pressures and impact the supply of new housing, particularly for much needed new secured rental and social housing projects which face the greatest viability challenges,” the report says. Accessibility Standards Canada, a federal agency created in 2019, has been gradually introducing more requirements for federal buildings. But Ms. McMullin said B.C. is the only jurisdiction asking for the requirements in 100 per cent of new residential buildings. Architects and developers have been working out how to incorporate the changes at the least cost. “It impacts small-sized units the most,” said Bryce Rositch, a founding partner at 33-year-old RH Architects. “If you’re designing for 530 square feet, it adds 50 to 70 square feet per unit.” He estimated that at the current cost of construction, that works out to $50,000 to $70,000 more. At one project that he developed plans for in Surrey, it reduced the number of units that could be built on the site by 9 per cent. Mr. Rositch said municipalities with good policies to promote accessibility, such as the City of North Vancouver, require 20 per cent of apartments in a building to be accessible. The city gives the builder a bonus on the limit of buildable floor space to compensate for the extra room needed... he argued, the industry has exaggerated the additional costs. It’s not 10 or 15 per cent, but something between 2 and 5 per cent – not any more than the industry had to absorb to meet other requirements brought in in recent years, such as for energy efficiency or seismic improvements."
The fact that house prices will rise to pay for the regulation which will only benefit small proportion of the population means capitalism will have failed because a developer should just not "buy as big of a second yacht, boo hoo"
Clearly, 10 measures that cost between 2 to 5 per cent don't increase the price of houses, and it's just greedy developers exploiting home buyers who are benefiting
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govt.exe is corrupt on X - "#BREAKING: After waging war on grocery stores... Jagmeet Singh now calls for laws to be passed across the country against landlords to ban evictions. Why would anyone want to rent out in this type of environment just to watch their asset turn into a slum filled with squatters?"
Toronto rent hits three-year low, but a swift comeback awaits - "Urbanation president Shaun Hildebrand noted that the current softening in rents is due to a temporary spike in condo completions, which he said will subside as new condo sales and construction activity drop."
Weird. Left wingers insist only "affordable housing" should be built
Tiny share of Canadian homes are Airbnbs that have potential to be long-term housing - The Globe and Mail - "Less than 1 per cent of the country’s housing stock are Airbnbs and Vrbo rentals that could be turned into long-term rentals or permanent housing, according to a Statistics Canada study. Housing experts have been trying to understand how short-term rentals (STRs) affect the housing market given that rental vacancy rates are below 2 per cent in major cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax. The Statscan study attempts to measure the share of STRs that could be turned into more permanent housing. It found that the share is “generally small” nationally as well as in the cities. An estimated 0.69 per cent of the country’s housing stock in 2023 was short-term rentals that had the potential to be long-term housing, the study said. “The data suggest that STRs are not a pivotal factor on the long-term rental market,” said Aled ab Iorwerth, deputy chief economist with the national housing agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., who was not involved in the study. “I don’t think it follows immediately that stopping a unit from being an STR will mean it’s immediately transferred into being a long-term rental,” he said... The study eliminated typical vacation properties such as cottages and chalets and only used short-term rentals where the entire unit was listed for rent for the majority of the year. In Toronto and Vancouver, cities that have long struggled with affordable rental options, the percentage was 0.36 per cent and 0.45 per cent, respectively... touristy areas had the highest share of Airbnbs and Vrbos that could be turned into long-term dwellings. For example, in popular ski resort areas such as Whistler, B.C., the percentage was 35 per cent. In Mont-Tremblant, Que., the share was 16.4 per cent."
Left wingers don't want housing to become cheaper. They just hate people renting out property
London property manager flags uptick in false documents in tenant applications - "As the owner of a London, Ont., property management firm, a big part of Michelle Teichroeb's job is screening the information submitted in tenant applications. Teichroeb, of Harrison Carter Group, will typically charge a landlord the equivalent of one month's rent to comb through the documents to verify tenants' income, rental history, credit history and character references. She's there as a gatekeeper to ensure the documents prospective tenants submit are legitimate but said increasingly, they aren't. "We've seen faked employment, doctored pay stubs and most recently, false bank statements," said Teichroeb, who's been in the business for 25 years. She said she began to notice an increase in fudged documents about 10 years ago, a time when London's rental market began to tighten considerably. While a low vacancy rate benefits landlords, allowing them to be more picky, it also increases the competition tenants face in the application process. Teichroeb showed CBC News a recent tenant application — with the applicant's name redacted — which she did not recommend for tenancy. Among the documents submitted were months of what appeared to be complete and accurate bank account statements from CIBC. They showed money going out for various purchases and expenses, but also listed what at first glance appeared to be regular payments from an employer. However, Teichroeb noticed the payroll deposits were always in suspiciously even amounts, such as $2,000. The deposit amounts were also not consistent in the amount or day deposited. Stranger still, the amounts listed under the statement's "deposit" column didn't change the overall total amount of funds in the account. Teichroeb believes the applicant dropped in false deposit entries into an otherwise legitimate bank statement. Verifying income is a crucial part of screening tenant applications because non-payment of rent is a top reason for landlord-initiated evictions at Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). "Your risk significantly goes up if you don't have a qualified tenant," she said. "If they're not qualified to pay for something, their risk of non-payment is huge.""
Clearly, it is unjustified for landlords to ask for so many documents so they can determine if their potential tenant is telling the truth, and no companies should own property and if individual landlords are more intrusive or do semi-legal/illegal things in lieu of big companies following the rules, that shows that capitalism has failed and housing needs to be nationalised instead of commoditised
Seeking solutions to the structural barriers of the GTA’s housing challenges - "On average, obtaining municipal approvals for new homes in the GTA takes roughly two years, with some municipalities taking almost three years (depending on the type of application). In stark contrast, other Canadian cities like Calgary can complete the process in just five months and London in ten. These approval delays not only slow the supply of new homes but also increase costs. For example, according to our 2022 benchmarking study, delays for high-rise condos can add $2.60 to $3.30 per square foot each month, potentially increasing costs by $37,000 (20-month average) or up to $70,000 (34-months) for a 700 sqft apartment. What causes these delays, and how can we expedite the approval process to reduce costs?
In the GTA, government fees and taxes make up 25% of the cost of a new home, with over half of this amount coming from municipal fees like development charges (DCs), parkland fees, and community benefits charges (CBCs). These fees fund services and infrastructure such as parks, roads, and water systems. Yet, there is a glaring discrepancy when comparing these costs with other regions. For instance, Ottawa’s DCs are roughly half of those in Pickering for high-rise apartments, and London’s charges are about one-third of Brampton’s for single-family homes. Are the costs of laying a sewer line or building a sidewalk truly three times higher in the GTA than elsewhere?
The GTA faces a critical shortage of serviced land needed for new housing. This scarcity drives up lot prices, which in turn raises the cost of new homes. This problem appears more pronounced in the GTA compared to other regions"
According to left wingers, reducing government fees and taxes is pointless, since developers will just raise their prices by exactly the same amount to compensate
Ontario developer coalition asks governments for tax breaks to pass on to homebuyers | Globalnews.ca : r/TorontoRealEstate - "Tax burden on new housing in Ontario is 31% of the purchase price. A new home in Ontario has a tax burden twice that of the rest of the economy. Governments make three times more than a builder of a new home. https://www.cancea.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CANCEA-TaxationOfOntarioHousing_2023.pdf When 31% of the cost of a house is taxes, that's a huge problem ( basically a third )"
" "It is important to note that all tax credits and rebates have been taken into account" And yes fees for accessing government services are still taxes - taxes are reasonable in some cases - but it's still a tax -- the biggest chunk of that 7% is fees for processing paperwork - which is really just a cash grab, so please don't go that route lol I'm also perfectly willing to look at Developer profits which sit at a "staggering" 10% margin ( on average ) - which for projects that take years --- I think a 10% margin is pretty reasonable. But even if we slash that in half to 5% - it would barely make a dent in the price of a home. But if we - 1. Kept the same margins or less for developers - while 2. significantly reducing or removing the tax burden - houses could be built cheaper"
"Welcome to Ontario (and specifically Toronto) where the government grift is completely out of control. Want lower housing costs? Fix this problem. The cost of new production drags up resale values. The funds collected aren’t directed to infrastructure related to housing - it’s just poured into other wasteful spending. Infuriating."