In a video fuss Stylistically borrowed from Rick Mercer, Poilievre makes a 180-degree turn on East 40th Avenue in Vancouver’s Renfrew-Collingwood neighborhood to reveal with bated breath a dilapidated 1930s home selling for $ 4.888 million.
He then uses it as an example to show how municipal regulations add to the cost of property in the city’s overheated market.
The property is a double plot measuring 66 feet by 140 feet (20 meters by 43 meters), according to BC Assessment. The real estate listing marks the house and a house at the back of the property for rent for $ 5,000 a month together.
In the video, Poilievre says the lot can be re-developed into six units at a cost of more than $ 1 million per unit, after which he asks a question he wants to answer: “Why does Vancouver have the third most inaccessible market?” housing on the planet? “
One reason, he says, quoting a work by the non-profit Howe CD Instituteis that the cost of housing regulation imposed by the city amounts to $ 644,000 for each unit being developed in Vancouver.
“This is the cost of getting approval, changing zones, getting a permit and paying all the fees directly to the city and to all the janitors,” Poilievre said in the video – before committing to removing the local janitors. we can build more houses “.
Of course, keeping this promise presupposes that he will first win the race for the Conservative leadership and his party will then win the next federal election.
A member of Poilievre’s campaign team told CBC that details of his plan would be made public later.
In a statement, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Poilievre’s CD Howe study was wrong and “assumes that any housing costs other than construction are the result of policies imposed by local governments, ignoring things like manufacturers’ profits, high land costs and speculative demand “.
The CBC contacted the paper’s author, CD Howe Vice President Benjamin Dachis, but received no response.
A “Now Selling” banner at a new apartment tower in downtown Vancouver pictured on Jan. 27. (Ben Nelms / CBC)
Poilievre’s video has been retweeted more than 2,000 times.
The CBC asked three people with knowledge of housing and real estate development in Vancouver to comment on his allegations.
Jon Stovell, President and CEO of Reliance Properties, President of the Urban Development Institute
“It’s great that he raises these issues and a lot of what he says is very accurate. Numbers are always a matter of debate and how they are calculated, but it happens to a large extent that government at all levels – municipal, provincial and federal – add a huge amount of cost in housing costs, while also complaining that it is not affordable and focus on foreigners, who I think is a red herring.
“And above the direct cost [governments] they add, they contribute tremendously – especially at the local level – to extreme time delays in housing construction, which dramatically increases costs because you usually use borrowed money to build housing as a builder. It also prevents housing from entering the market and housing people. “
Jill Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association
“Well, that $ 644,000 is true, but only on properties where there is a significant increase in density … When we add more homes, we need to add more capacity for water and sanitation.
“It is important to point out when quoting reports that CD Howe’s own report calls for funding for these same services. And our property taxes, especially in British Columbia, are actually very, very low when we look at either other provinces or other countries.
“We need to accelerate these timetables in order to build more housing and, in particular, the types of housing that our cities need most, which is both a market and a non-market rental housing.”
Tom Davidoff, UBC economist and housing researcher
“I have to be careful with the $ 644,000 price tag attributed to municipal and provincial fees. I think that would be high, first of all. But in addition, those fees usually subtract from the value of the land. it matters how many houses are built And, you know, the intersection of supply and demand will lead to the final price.
“It’s partly right. I think the federal government should intimidate municipalities into doing the right thing about housing. And the acceleration of approvals is great. The reduction in fees, I’m not so sure.
“The federal government has allocated in the current budget money that only goes to municipalities that do a better job of approving housing. Now, it may say that there is insufficient incentive, and that may be true, but it is good to see that this is in the budget. “
