Municipal Governments Have the Most Direct Impact on Housing
Voters in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario are heading back to the polls this October for the municipal election, where they will elect a new mayor and municipality councilors. The municipal level of government is the level that has the most direct impact on the housing supply, location, and choice.
As housing affordability and shortage crises have been affecting the nation, the choices that voters in the GTA make on October 24th will significantly affect the future of housing availability. Candidates for office should have clear, plausible, and bold ideas on addressing the housing challenge and must remain undistracted by the short-term economic conditions for genuine change.
Recent headlines have indicated that the demand for housing in the GTA is beginning to cool off amidst economic uncertainty. However, the fundamental challenges that contribute to the housing crisis have yet to be resolved and are even exacerbated as short-term economic conditions and inflationary pressures great demand but simultaneously increase the costs of building new housing.
As the population continues to grow across all municipalities in the GTA, the pause in the housing market will quickly resume once the market adjusts to higher interest rates or rates begin to stabilize.
It is somewhat like what occurred in 2017 after the market slowdown following the introduction of the mortgage stress test. As demand begins to return, the limited housing supply issues will promptly return, and new housing supply will be more expensive due to the inflationary pressures of previous years. Thus, affordability challenges will persist.
In June of this year, the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported that 1.85-million additional homes are required in Ontario by 2030 to restore a target affordability rate of 37% of households' average income. That equates to approximately a 150% annual increase in the housing starts reported in 2021 every year for the next eight years.
What To Look for In the Candidate’s Platforms
To learn more about how the upcoming election can affect the housing crisis, go to TheStar.com:
“Our challenge is clear: we must find ways to build much more housing, more quickly and more efficiently than we do now. Candidates for municipal office must take up this challenge and engage the electorate in a conversation on how we can collectively meet it. They also need to support ambitious ideas for getting more housing built, such as the 55 recommendations in the report of Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force.
Leading up to the municipal election, BILD will be profiling ideas for addressing the ongoing housing supply and affordability crisis across the GTA. We hope that both candidates and voters recognize they have an opportunity to make a potentially historic impact on the housing supply and affordability — and ultimately the competitiveness and livability — of our region.”
From Municipal Election Candidates Must Champion Bold Ideas on Housing - The Toronto Star
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Have you noticed any discussion of the housing crisis on the candidate’s platforms thus far?
Written by S2A Modular & Associates Inc.
August 13th, 2022