Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolven
I think there is some confusion here. The goal is not to increase housing supply, the goal is to drive down housing costs. Increasing the housing supply is the vehicle to get to the destination of reasonable housing costs.
So yes, government built housing needs to become part of the solution, especially if blanket rezoning stays. As we have learned from insurance and electrical companies, if you deregulate a private industry you do not get cheaper results, you get more expensive results. This happens because the corporations goals do not align with your goals. - Our goal is to bring down the cost of homes for current and future generations to be able to have a home.
- Their goal is to drive up the cost of homes to make more profits.
These two things do not align and if you allow the corporations to have the steering wheel then your solution is going to fail to accomplish your goal.
To drive down housing costs, increasing the housing supply through building more houses is a good step. Other steps I think should be taken:
- Eliminate foreign ownership of Canadian land - There is no need for a billionaire in China to park their money in Canada and take houses away from Canadians.
- Eliminate corporate ownership of Canadian housing - Aside from a few exceptions, corporate housing is pretty bad. BC had to eliminate short term rentals because too much of their housing was being purchased by corporations and converted into short term rentals. However, allowing highly regulated non-profits to run affordable rental housing is a good idea. |
I don't entirely disagree.
Corporate ownership of single-dwelling units is a possibility, but I would assume most of this is involved in condo units vs single family homes.
I also think homebuilders nearly have a license to print money at this point, given demand and supply issues (however, the upfront costs and the labour issues are certainly something to be acknowledged.
But a corporation buying thousands of houses vs a home builder making cash on infills is a different argument.
I would say that i know two people whom have bought a property, torn it down, built a duplex and sold the second unit while living in the other. Lots of upfront risk and you need to be somewhat wealthy for that, but it turned out good for them.