Prime Minster Mark Carney’s solution to the ‘housing crisis’ is the same as was that of former Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s: throw money at it. Most of Carney’s government people are former Trudeau government people, so it shouldn’t be a surprise their answer is to spend other peoples’ money. The Carney Liberals' plan is to build a new bureaucracy to build new homes, called Build Canada Homes, at a cost of $25 billion taxpayer bucks. While in office, Trudeau’s government spent $116 billion on the housing crisis, so Carney has a long way to go to match Trudeau’s pilfering of Canadians' tax money but of course, he’s just getting started. The Liberals will also rebate all GST paid on newly built homes priced up to $1 million, purchased by first-time buyers, with a scale of rebates of new homes priced between $1 million and $1.5 million, But, according to a new Abacus Data poll, the majority of Canadians know nothing about Build Canada Homes nor the GST rebates. The poll asked 2,200 Canadians what they thought of the Liberals' plans and found only 40% have heard of them, while only 14% who knew about them think the government should follow through with them. .Abacus also found that when it comes to housing, Canadians want affordability. More than anything else however, they want financing tools that reflect their real financial situations and they have an appetite for innovation. This is especially so among younger Canadians. Prime Minister Carney is correct to focus on first-time home buyers. However, rebating the GST is not what this group needs to get into home ownership. Long before any paperwork can be done on rebates, first-time buyers scramble for years to save enough for the down-payments needed to qualify for mortgages. According to real estate portal Zoocasa, based on the average price in each market, to save up for a 20% downpayment would take 17 years, three months in Vancouver. In Toronto, it’s fourteen years, seven months and in Calgary it would take nine years, six months. Some first-timers use the Bank of Mom and Dad, but the majority don’t have that luxury and it is that majority the government should be helping, by fronting downpayments. The Liberals' plan focusses on housing supply and means to eventually build 500,000 new homes — every year! — through Build Canada Homes. (There’s a better chance of me becoming the starting quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders than there is to adding 500,000 new homes each year.).Whether supply should still be the focus of the government’s spending could be answered in the May housing statistics released by real estate boards in Canada’s three most active markets: Calgary, Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto. They show that if the housing crisis isn’t over, it’s certainly on pause. Housing supply in the three markets increased to levels not seen in the last three years. In Toronto, new listings increased 46.5% year-over-year. In Vancouver active listings were up 25.7%, year-over-year and 45.9% above the 10-year average. In Calgary, active listings increased a remarkable 98% year-over-year. Referencing the Abacus poll, Canadians want financing tools reflecting their financial situations and they have an appetite for innovation. In response to being innovative and providing financial tools, the Liberal government should ditch Build Canada Homes and put the $25 billion to use funding down-payments for first-time buyers. I can hear a chorus of ‘but, we didn’t have any help with our down-payments’ but all homeowners in Canada have a stake in getting as many first-time buyers as possible into ownership. .We buy homes to live in, of course, but we look forward with great anticipation to the day the mortgage papers are burned, and we watch our home equity grow. But, if there is no one to eventually buy your home, there is no equity. Just a home that can’t be sold. First-time buyers, between 25 and 35 years old, are leaving the buyers pool or no longer qualify for it due to home costs rising faster than the rate of income increases. First-time buyers are the lifeblood of the housing equity chain, buying their first home, then a second and a third, possibly a fourth and further up the chain. If that buyer chain collapses, Canadian housing markets will be in serious jeopardy and equity will dry up. First-timers need a hand up and that should be handing them down-payments. There needs to be regulations of course, which likely means creating a new bureaucracy to replace a proposed one, but challenging times require solutions that challenge. The down-payments could be repaid in monthly mortgage payments, as the GST is now. There could be restrictions on the price of homes under the plan, which could possibly vary by market, perhaps using the average sales price in each market as a lid. Both new and resale homes would be eligible. .The Canadian Real Estate Assocation said the average April home sales price in Canada was $680,000, requiring a 20% downpayment of $136,000. If the Liberal's $25 billion for Build Canada Homes was spent on 20% down-payments, it would open the doors to about 184,000 homes for first-time buyers, while not having to wait several years for Build Canada Homes to become productive.Mr. Carney, get down with down-payments.
