WEEK OF MARCH 18 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
As more stories about the housing crisis, housing affordability and every other doom and gloom article is published, we unfortunately will be hearing more and more about rent control. This week we debunk the first of many to come.
read moreFIRST WE TRIED TINY CONDOS, NOW ARE TINY HOUSE RENTALS GOING TO HELP OUR HOUSING CRISIS?
The latest is a report from the Task Force for Housing and Climate, which is made up of politicians, academics and private sector stakeholders, with over 140 policy actions they recommended for federal, provincial and municipal governments. While all of this effort is welcomed given the extent of our housing affordability crisis, it once again shows that good intentions alone are not enough when it comes to housing policy. It takes very little for policies to incentivize the wrong behaviour in...
read moreMONTREAL REVAMPS SOCIAL HOUSING BYLAW, AIMS TO GET MORE DEVELOPERS ON BOARD
In 2021, a bylaw took effect with the goal of forcing Montreal developers to include social, family and affordable housing in their projects. Nearly three years later, and with many questions swirling about the effectiveness of that bylaw, the city is revamping its rules and being more lenient with developers. Benoit Dorais, the vice-president of Montreal’s executive committee who is in charge of the housing file, said the bylaw, which is called the Règlement pour une métropole...
read moreHOUSING WILL BE KEY IN BUDGET 2024. FOR NDP, THAT MEANS RENOVICTION REFORM
Ahead of what’s expected to be a tight federal budget next month, the NDP is calling for a rental protection fund to stop renovictions as part of what the party is coining its “budget demands.” But there’s no word on what such a proposal could cost, or whether it can fit into what Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and others have stressed is a “constrained” fiscal environment. “If we see rents continue to rise the way they are, and if we can continue to see affordable homes being sold off to...
read moreFREELAND TOUTS ‘AFFORDABLE’ DEVELOPMENT RENTING 330-SQUARE-FOOT UNITS FOR $1,600
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland toured a new building on Monday offering micro-apartments starting at $1,600 per month that she said was illustrative of the homes that her government is getting built for “low and middle income Canadians.”“This is an apartment building that has 227 apartments for low and middle income Canadians and it was built thanks to our Apartment Construction Loan Program,” said Freeland in a video shot at the site of Hudson House, a new 23-storey rental high-rise...
read moreWEEK OF MARCH 11 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
According to CMHC, in order to achieve housing affordability Canada will need to build 5.8 million homes by 2030. A new Task Force Blueprint Report makes 140 recommendations to achieve the goal.
read moreINFRASTRUCTURE OR NON-PROFIT RENTAL BUILDINGS? HOW SHOULD TORONTO SPEND PROVINCE’S $114 MILLION HOUSING “REWARD”
Following the Ontario government recently “rewarding” the City of Toronto with $114 million for exceeding its Housing Action Plan targets by 51 per cent, conversations surrounding how the money should be spent have begun. Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford believes this newly available funding should go towards city infrastructure. “There are a couple things the province outlined that we could do with the money, but we need to be investing this in the infrastructure to enable growth,”...
read moreTWO FORMER SAINT JOHN SCHOOLS TO BE TURNED INTO MORE THAN 100 APARTMENTS
After remaining tight-lipped for months about plans for two former Saint John school buildings, a Fredericton-based developer is now revealing details. Erik de Jong, president of City Line Holdings, said the schools represent about a third of the roughly 340 new housing units planned for Saint John in the coming years. City Line bought the former St. Patrick’s School, on the city’s west side, and the former St. Vincent’s High School, on Cliff Street in the shadow of St....
read moreRENT UP 10.5% NATIONWIDE BUT STAGNANT IN MANY ONTARIO MARKETS, INCLUDING HAMILTON AND OSHAWA
The average asking rent for all property types in Canada increased 10.5 per cent annually to $2,193 per month, the fastest annual growth since September 2023 according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation’s latest National Rent Report. Compared to February 2022, just before the onset of interest rate increases by the Bank of Canada, average asking rents in Canada have increased by 21 per cent, translating to a $384 per month increase nation-wide. “The rapid rate of rent growth in Canada is...
read moreNDP WANTS RATE HIKES CAPPED AT FIVE PER CENT. NO CHANCE UCP WILL AGREE
The UCP will almost certainly squash an NDP bill that comes up in the legislature next Monday. It calls for rent control, a constant no-no over decades of conservative governments. But the UCP needs to think hard about some form of relief from rent hikes that often hit double digits and hundreds of dollars a month.NDP Leader Rachel Notley calls the proposal “a very modest form of rent oversight.” The private-member’s bill, from NDP MLA Janis Irwin, would tie rent increases to the rate of...
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