TORONTO – The Liberal government will seek to alleviate Canada’s more than $ 10 billion in housing funding to accelerate housing construction and repairs, along with measures to cool the market and help those trying to buy their first. home.
“The main challenge in Canada when it comes to housing is the lack of supply.  “And this budget has to do with this front,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference Thursday afternoon, before the government unveiled its latest federal spending plans.
Freeland has pledged to double the number of homes built each year over the next decade to about 400,000 to help cover the government’s estimated 3.5 million homes by 2031, but plans rely heavily on working with other levels of government and the private sector.
“We recognize that the federal government does not have all the tools to increase the supply of housing, so we tried to be really creative and suggest ways in which the federal government can work with municipalities, counties and counties to promote the supply of housing.” , said Freeland.  .
The cost includes $ 4 billion in a broad fund acceleration for municipalities to help design and deliver housing, targeting 100,000 new units over five years.
There is also $ 1.5 billion in two years for more than 6,000 new affordable housing through the Rapid Housing Initiative, $ 475 million for those with accessibility challenges, and $ 2.9 billion in accelerated already promised spending through a funded consequent fund vulnerable Canadians.
Other measures include $ 150 million for affordable housing in Northern Canada over the next two years, more than $ 600 million for new and existing homelessness programs, money redistributed to cooperative housing, and just over $ 1 billion for a variety Home energy efficiency initiatives, including loans and grants for greener affordable housing.
The commitments also include $ 4.3 billion in spending for Indigenous communities over seven years, including $ 2.4 billion in housing stock, although that figure is very little of what supporters say is needed.
The Liberals say they will also use more than $ 40 billion in infrastructure funding to push cities and counties to act faster on housing.
Efforts to boost supply come amid an overheated market that has seen prices rise more than 20 percent since last year, reaching a record $ 816,720 in February, with rental prices also rising.
The budget will try to offer some price relief by banning foreign buyers from buying a home for the next two years, although there are exceptions for residents, international students and refugees, and taxing home sales within a year of purchase. as business income.  there are many exceptions to important life events.
The Liberals also announced a review of how big home-buying companies are influencing the market and what options they have, such as tax measures, to address the growing trend, but made no policy commitments on the issue.
However, the government needs to move faster to prevent housing from becoming an asset category, said Ricardo Tranjan, a senior Ontario researcher at the Canadian Center for Alternative Policies, in a statement.
“This is another budget without measures to limit the financing of housing.  “By next year, even more homes will be owned by speculators rather than working-class families.”
He said there were encouraging signs for housing, but that the government should make permanent programs like the Rapid Housing Initiative.
“The federal government is definitely back in the housing game – and that’s good news – but there is room for more boldness and more for rent-seeking families.”
The budget also includes measures to help people trying to enter the market, including a new savings account and tax credit changes for the first time when buying a home.
Home buyers will generally be given more protection through a rights statement that includes a right to a home inspection, termination of the blind bid – a widespread practice where sellers do not disclose competing bids – as well as possible mortgage deferrals and increased notifications.
Tim Hudak, chief executive of the Ontario Real Estate Association, welcomed the spending commitments, but said proposals to change the way homes are sold, including ending blind bidding, would undermine consumer choice.
“The commitment to ban the traditional bidding process is a huge step backwards.  “It would unfairly target the financial nest of hundreds of thousands of families,” he said in a statement.
There are signs, however, that the real estate industry is coming up with more transparent offers, as the Canadian Real Estate Association pledged on Wednesday to pilot real-time home bids.
This Canadian Press report was first published on April 7, 2022.