Zoning Reform Ideas

[Northern Light]

Average tax rate for Ontario on 40k income is around 13%. https://www.eytaxcalculators.com/en/2022-personal-tax-calculator.html

I did say $40,000 beyond the basic personal amount. Not $40,000 total.

If that person wants to move to an equivalent house with an equivalent valuation on the other side of town, they would need to come up with $200k to pay the tax bill or add that to their mortgage. That is very strong incentive to never move. That kills labour mobility. It also means that the high bidder for housing will be long holding duration owners like landlords.

That is true IF the idea fails to stifle price growth which is the point of the exercise.

If we return real estate to its more traditional average growth in line with inflation or just over..........then the massive capital gains are unlikely accrue.

 

[Northern Light]

Announcement on Housing Affordability/Zoning Reforms coming today, per CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-doug-ford-housing-affordability-plan-1.6395946

No details on what's in/out yet, only sources claiming that it is 'balanced'

 

[allengeorge]

Waiting to just before an election is the worst time to introduce substantial, contentious change. As such, I expect this legislation to be mostly signaling and focused on the approvals process. The municipalities will complain, but no one will get hot and bothered enough for it to be a useful issue during the campaign trail.

I would be pleasantly surprised if otherwise.

 

[afransen]

That is true IF the idea fails to stifle price growth which is the point of the exercise.

If we return real estate to its more traditional average growth in line with inflation or just over..........then the massive capital gains are unlikely accrue.

Then landlords buying property on cap rates will outbid owner occupiers.

 

[allengeorge]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1509148274367901698

Looks like the news will drop this afternoon, and…as predicted, sounding underwhelming.

 

[Northern Light]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1509148274367901698

Looks like the news will drop this afternoon, and…as predicted, sounding underwhelming.

So far, I've got this:

From: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-...ll-meant-to-increase-housing-supply-1.5840747

As soon as the text of the bill is out, I will link it.

****

From:

Ontario introduces new legislation to increase housing supply in province | Globalnews.ca

Ontario’s housing minister introduced new legislation on Wednesday, aimed at increasing the supply of housing in the province.

globalnews.ca

Definitely not what @innsertnamehere thought was coming; and pretty close to @allengeorge

I thought we would see more than this, but much less than the recommendations which were in some cases quite extreme.

But this is pretty close to bait and switch unless there is more coming when I get the text of the bill.

 

[allengeorge]

Ontario Newsroom

news.ontario.ca

Press release. A whole lotta nothing: consultations, money for the OLT, standards, ‘tools for cracking down on land speculation…’

 

[allengeorge]

Ontario bill aims to speed construction as house prices keep surging

Minister Steve Clark blames municipal pushback for the failure to implement a recommended ban on single-family-only zoning

www.theglobeandmail.com

Globe and Mail article. One new thing there is that the bill will amend the building code to allow 12 storey timber buildings.

 

[allengeorge]

There is this from the Globe and Mail article, but I’ll file this under “prove it”:

“ In slides distributed to reporters for Wednesday’s technical briefing, the government says the task force’s report is its “long-term housing roadmap” and that it is “committed to implementing the Task Force’s recommendations with a housing supply action plan every year over four years, starting in 2022-23, with policies and tools that support multi-generational homes and missing middle housing.”

This party - hell, any party - is loath to
anger homeowners, so I wouldn’t bank on them making any substantive changes. Guess we’ll have to wait until so many young people are priced out of homes that a radical populist is voted into power.

 

[innsertnamehere]

My guess is that they are going to make some big changes but want to use it as an election plank, and frankly they are likely too complex to formulate properly before the election following the task force recommendations. It's still disappointing to see nothing substantial in this bill, but I'm not surprised the heavy stuff has been left until after the election.

 

[allengeorge]

http://www.ontario.ca/page/more-homes-everyone

Haha - this is both hilarious and rage-inducing:

“We heard from municipalities that they aren’t ready to implement ambitious policies from the Task Force’s report right now.”

 

[Northern Light]

My guess is that they are going to make some big changes but want to use it as an election plank

You think suburban, Conservative-leaning voters consider it a positive if developers are allowed to build tall housing, as-of-right, next to their homes?

Zero chance of this being an election plank, irrespective of the merits of various policies it would not be a net winner, probably for any party, but certainly not one reliant on suburban SFH owners for the bulk of its electorate.

, and frankly they are likely too complex to formulate properly before the election following the task force recommendations

Some of the recommendations could get complex, but many are fairly straight forward, and any bill could easily have the caveat 'subject to regulations' which buys the government time until proclaiming the bill.

 

[christiesplits]

My expectations were low, but even I'm disappointed. The only stakeholder that I imagine is happy is the development industry.

 

[Amare]

http://www.ontario.ca/page/more-homes-everyone

Haha - this is both hilarious and rage-inducing:

“We heard from municipalities that they aren’t ready to implement ambitious policies from the Task Force’s report right now.”

When's the last time the Ford government cared about what municipalities had to say? Last time we checked, they like to ram things down the throat of towns and cities because apparently the province knows best and enjoys constantly meddling in municipal affairs.

Something fishy is up, this isnt normal at all.

 

[DirectionNorth]

When's the last time the Ford government cared about what municipalities had to say? Last time we checked, they like to ram things down the throat of towns and cities because apparently the province knows best and enjoys constantly meddling in municipal affairs.

Something fishy is up, this isnt normal at all.

No, no, no, the Ford government lying about their intention is perfectly normal. I'd be more concerned if they didn't use political-talk to cover up their lies.