Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced the cabinet will be implementing measures to reduce the demand for housing.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, in a letter to MPs, the minister stated simply increasing the housing supply is not enough.“To restore affordability by 2030, Canada will need a combination of ambitious action to expand housing supply, supporting the building of as many as 3.5 million homes over and above current projections and careful, well-calibrated measures to moderate housing demand,” Fraser wrote the Commons Human Resources committee.Fraser did not give more details. He wrote this letter after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on September 13 housing is too expensive in Canada.“Prices have come far too high,” Trudeau told reporters. “It’s not fair.”“House pricing cannot continue to go up,” said Trudeau. “Everywhere they are too high.”A research group funded by the federal government also suggested some measures to control prices, but they did not specify the measures.“We can no longer tolerate the gap between home prices and local earnings growing any larger,” the group Generation Squeeze of the University of British Columbia wrote in a submission to the Commons Finance committee. “Federal housing policy must be recalibrated to advance the goal of ensuring home prices stall so that earnings can catch up.”The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation had previously given the same group $450,000 for a report in 2022. In that report, they suggested an annual equity tax of $5.8 billion on homeowners.The report Wealth and the Problems of Housing Inequity Across Generations was not accepted or approved when presented.“Although rising prices are bad for younger generations, they have simultaneously created wealth windfalls for many homeowners, especially older Canadians who have been in the market for longer,” Generation Squeeze wrote the Finance committee. “Compared to 1977, the combined value of principal residences in Canada jumped by over $3 trillion. Two-thirds of this additional housing wealth is owned by those over 55.”Home prices currently average $1.2 million in Vancouver according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) followed by Toronto ($1.1 million), Victoria ($885,000), Ottawa ($644,000), Yellowknife ($561,000), Calgary ($553,000), Whitehorse ($532,000), Montréal ($519,000), Saskatoon ($382,000), Edmonton ($373,400), Charlottetown ($365,000), Winnipeg ($343,000), St. John’s ($339,000), Regina ($309,000), Saint John ($297,000), Fredericton ($288,000) and Brandon ($266,000).Prices are still very high and an MP shared a story in the Commons on Friday about a couple from rural Ontario who sold their house to purchase a chateau in France.“A couple from Fergus, Ontario swapped their four-bedroom, 2,400-square foot home on three-quarters of an acre for a 6,300-square foot, 16th-century French chateau on 37 acres near the Bordeaux wine region in the south of France,” said Conservative MP Scott Aitchison (Parry Sound-Muskoka, ON).“Today, they admit if they were to sell that mansion in the south of France, they would not have enough money to buy their old home in Fergus,” said Aitchison. “I am wondering why it is cheaper to buy a mansion in the south of France than a family home in rural Ontario.”Fergus is located northwest of Toronto and has around 21,000 residents. The average home prices in this area are approximately $840,000, as per data from CREA.
Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced the cabinet will be implementing measures to reduce the demand for housing.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, in a letter to MPs, the minister stated simply increasing the housing supply is not enough.“To restore affordability by 2030, Canada will need a combination of ambitious action to expand housing supply, supporting the building of as many as 3.5 million homes over and above current projections and careful, well-calibrated measures to moderate housing demand,” Fraser wrote the Commons Human Resources committee.Fraser did not give more details. He wrote this letter after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on September 13 housing is too expensive in Canada.“Prices have come far too high,” Trudeau told reporters. “It’s not fair.”“House pricing cannot continue to go up,” said Trudeau. “Everywhere they are too high.”A research group funded by the federal government also suggested some measures to control prices, but they did not specify the measures.“We can no longer tolerate the gap between home prices and local earnings growing any larger,” the group Generation Squeeze of the University of British Columbia wrote in a submission to the Commons Finance committee. “Federal housing policy must be recalibrated to advance the goal of ensuring home prices stall so that earnings can catch up.”The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation had previously given the same group $450,000 for a report in 2022. In that report, they suggested an annual equity tax of $5.8 billion on homeowners.The report Wealth and the Problems of Housing Inequity Across Generations was not accepted or approved when presented.“Although rising prices are bad for younger generations, they have simultaneously created wealth windfalls for many homeowners, especially older Canadians who have been in the market for longer,” Generation Squeeze wrote the Finance committee. “Compared to 1977, the combined value of principal residences in Canada jumped by over $3 trillion. Two-thirds of this additional housing wealth is owned by those over 55.”Home prices currently average $1.2 million in Vancouver according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) followed by Toronto ($1.1 million), Victoria ($885,000), Ottawa ($644,000), Yellowknife ($561,000), Calgary ($553,000), Whitehorse ($532,000), Montréal ($519,000), Saskatoon ($382,000), Edmonton ($373,400), Charlottetown ($365,000), Winnipeg ($343,000), St. John’s ($339,000), Regina ($309,000), Saint John ($297,000), Fredericton ($288,000) and Brandon ($266,000).Prices are still very high and an MP shared a story in the Commons on Friday about a couple from rural Ontario who sold their house to purchase a chateau in France.“A couple from Fergus, Ontario swapped their four-bedroom, 2,400-square foot home on three-quarters of an acre for a 6,300-square foot, 16th-century French chateau on 37 acres near the Bordeaux wine region in the south of France,” said Conservative MP Scott Aitchison (Parry Sound-Muskoka, ON).“Today, they admit if they were to sell that mansion in the south of France, they would not have enough money to buy their old home in Fergus,” said Aitchison. “I am wondering why it is cheaper to buy a mansion in the south of France than a family home in rural Ontario.”Fergus is located northwest of Toronto and has around 21,000 residents. The average home prices in this area are approximately $840,000, as per data from CREA.
