Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
They're building rental units and co-op housing, not condos.
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I'm aware of what they want to build. The problem is they haven't given any semblance of a plan on how to cost is, run it, maintain it, etc. Of the 11,400 homes they want to build each year, 7,000 of these are rental. The other 4,400 are market housing. There are currently 15,000 people on BC's wait list. Does building 44,000 units of market housing make sense when there are 15,000 people waiting? Where does the land come from for all these units? Where does the money come from to build these units? Let's assume the average unit is 600 SF, and the building costs are $200 PSF. The cost to build in the first year is $1,368,000,000. That's almost $1.4 Billion, and only includes the costs to build. That doesn't include the cost of land, nor does it include the operating costs once they are built.
There is already enough rhetoric about the construction and development industry, including they are building everywhere. If this is true, who is going to build the new units with the industry already at capacity? It's not creating new jobs if they have to bring people in from other provinces. It's already difficult to find trades, so if trades become more in demand, then the prices continue to rise. If the provincial government is going to act as the GC or the developer, they can say they are keeping costs down by paying reasonable wages. Very few of the trades will go there, if they know they'll get paid more elsewhere.
There are parts of the budget that are fine. This is not one of them.