DEVELOPERS CLAIM THEY’RE NOT HOARDING VACANT LAND, FEARING USE-IT-OR-LOSE-IT POLICY
Ontario’s construction industry is pushing back against claims that developers are sitting on thousands of approved building permits, as the Ford government develops new use-it-or-lose-it policies. Amid sluggish housing construction starts in Ontario, the Progressive Conservative government has been weighing new policies that would target “land banking” and speed up development as the province looks to build 1.5 million homes by 2031. Currently, according to the government housing tracker, the...
read moreWEEK OF FEBRUARY 19 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
This week another advocacy group dominates the headlines with another excuse for the housing crisis – which of course misses the mark.
read moreCONCERNS ABOUT RENT INCREASES AFTER MONTREAL TENANTS SIGN RENOVATION AGREEMENT
For 29 years, Muguette Payette has lived at her studio apartment in downtown Montreal. She never thought she would have to leave. “If I don’t have an apartment, a decent apartment, what am I going to do? I’m going to be outside in the street,” Payette told CTV News. Recently, a new landlord purchased her building and the adjacent one on Fort Street. Shortly after, Payette says she met with two employees from the company that owns the building, and they offered her a...
read moreBANK OF CANADA’S INFLATION ‘BUFFET’ MUDDIES TIMING OF CUTS
The Bank of Canada says it’s watching core inflation closely as it weighs when to cut rates, but a mixed bag of measures gives it options on timing and clouds the outlook for markets and economists. The central bank has no less than six indexes it monitors to get a grasp on underlying price pressures. Governor Tiff Macklem has pushed back against focus on a specific indicator, describing core inflation as more of a “concept.” While that reflects the bank’s need for certainty before declaring...
read moreB.C. TO FUND NEW INCOME-TESTED RENTAL HOUSING ON PUBLIC LAND
The provincial government says it will spend $950 million and provide $2 billion in low-cost financing to have thousands of rental homes built on under-used public land, which would then be provided to middle-income earners living in those communities. The announcement is the latest under the province’s Homes for People program, which was announced last April and promised a multi-pronged approach to supply new types of housing in the province, combat rampant speculation and address the...
read moreSTUDENT VISA CAP TO SLOW CANADA RENTAL DEMAND GROWTH, RBC SAYS
Canada’s new cap on international study permits should slow the increase in demand for rental units from foreign students by about half this year, according to the country’s largest lender. The number of international students in Canada is expected to grow by 100,000 in 2024, or 55% less than the net increase last year, assuming similar enrollment rates and outflow patterns after the pandemic, Rachel Battaglia, an economist at Royal Bank of Canada, wrote in a note on Wednesday. The impact on...
read moreWEEK OF FEBRUARY 12 2024 NEWSREEL WITH VANESSA TOPPLE
This week the federal government announced it was adding millions of dollars to the Canada Housing Benefit, which provides rental support to low-income Canadians.
read moreCANADA’S HOUSING CRISIS: NEW FUNDING ISN’T A ‘LONG-TERM’ SOLUTION, WARNS RESEARCHER
As a crushing housing stock shortage, record prices and skyrocketing rents spur an exodus from Canada’s biggest cities, the federal government announced almost $100 million in new funding to tackle rent affordability. One researcher is warning, however, that although the additional support is “absolutely needed” it’s not a long-term solution to a growing problem. “The yawning gap between affordable rents and what people are earning … won’t be helped very...
read moreINCREASING INFLATION TO A GROWING POPULATION, EDMONTON’S RENTAL MARKET IS UNDER PRESSURE
Edmonton’s steadily rising population is coming head-to-head with a strained housing market, in which the cost of buying a home has become too high and the supply of rental units has hit its lowest point in a decade. The pressure of high mortgage rates and inflation have caused a shift in demand from buying a home to renting. And the demand for rentals is expected to surpass new supply, according to David Dale-Johnson, executive professor of real estate at the University of...
read moreBANK OF CANADA BELIEVES INTEREST RATES NEED MORE TIME TO WORK, MINUTES REVEAL
The Bank of Canada believes current interest rates are high enough to bring inflation under control, but will not contemplate cutting them until it is convinced price stability has been restored. The central bank left its key overnight interest rate at five per cent last month and central bankers are now weighing how much longer it will have to be maintained at that level, according to a summary of the deliberations that led to the Jan. 24 hold decision. Still, with core inflation of around...
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