Connect With Us To Talk Real Estate: 📆 calendly.com/thevancouverlife _________________________________ This week’s discussion focuses on the current state of the housing market and its central role in the upcoming provincial election. With housing affordability and availability at critical levels, this issue has become a focal point for voters and policymakers. We’ll break down the latest developments, key political stances, and potential implications for homeowners and prospective buyers. The provincial election is just around the corner, and it’s no surprise that housing has emerged as the primary battleground. After decades of underbuilding, BC finds itself facing a severe housing shortage, with estimates indicating a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of homes. The current party in power, the NDP, has attempted to address this issue through various initiatives, such as the Missing Middle Policy and Transit-Oriented Area (TOA) regulations. These measures aim to increase density by allowing for multiplex units on single-family lots and permitting high-rise developments up to 20 stories near transit hubs. However, the path to achieving these goals is anything but straightforward. While the province has pushed these initiatives forward, many municipalities have been resistant. Cities like Langley, West Vancouver, and North Vancouver have outright rejected the Missing Middle reforms, opting to maintain lower density levels despite provincial pressure. Even in cities that have embraced the policy, such as Richmond and New Westminster, restrictive Floor Space Ratio (FSR) limits have made it economically unfeasible for developers to build larger multi-family homes, leaving the intended impact on housing supply minimal at best. Burnaby, on the other hand, has adopted the provincial rules and has positioned itself as a more builder-friendly environment. However, increased municipal fees have made margins razor-thin for developers, which dampens the enthusiasm for new projects. This lack of alignment between provincial aspirations and municipal realities has resulted in an unattractive building environment, hampering the overall effectiveness of these policies. To further complicate matters, the leader of the BC Conservative Party, John Rustad, has voiced strong opposition to the Missing Middle and TOAH reforms, labeling them as “crazy,” “authoritarian,” and “hardcore socialist.” He has vowed to repeal these initiatives if his party comes to power, which would potentially undo years of planning and hundreds of building permit applications that have been submitted to bring much-needed housing to the market. Moving east, we see a similar struggle in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), where the latest Municipal Benchmarking Study by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), developed by Altus Group Economic Consulting, highlights a critical gap between housing supply and population growth. According to the report, the GTA’s housing stock is not keeping up with the rapidly growing population, marking the widest gap in over 50 years. This imbalance points to a worsening housing crisis that demands immediate attention. One of the primary drivers of this gap is the prolonged approval process for new projects, which takes an average of 20 months. This delay can add between $43,000 to $90,000 per unit, inflating costs for both developers and buyers. Additionally, municipal fees, taxes, and charges now constitute nearly 25% of a home’s cost in the GTA. Since 2022, these fees have risen by $42,000 for low-rise and $32,000 for high-rise developments, adding over $122,000 to the average condo price and $164,000 to single-family homes. With such high barriers to building, the GTA faces an uphill battle in closing the housing gap. In regulatory news, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) announced this week that it will be easing stress test requirements for homeowners looking to renew their mortgages. Previously, homeowners wishing to switch lenders at renewal had to requalify under stringent stress test conditions-either at a rate of 5.25% or their actual rate plus 2.0%, which currently sits around 6.5% to 7.5%. This made it difficult for many Canadians to switch lenders, effectively locking them into less favorable mortgage terms with their current lenders. The new policy, which goes into effect on November 21st, allows homeowners to do a straight switch to a new lender without undergoing the stress test, provided they are not looking to extend their mortgage’s amortization period. We finish up this weeks episode with a quick look into how the housing market performed in September as we tee up next weeks stats episode.
John Rustad's approach is to set a deadline of 3-6 months on granting permits, which is on point, because right now there is no reason why permits take a year or two to be passed. It is either plain incompetence or intentional gatekeeping. Increasing density has a big negative impact on infrastructures like road, electricity grid, water and septic system,... and will like bring down your quality of life.
Yes there is, the workers passing them spend more time wondering when their next coffee break is than rubber stamping the simple applications. Make them get paid per passed application and watch how fast they push them out, and guess what? They'd make double the wage in half the time
Btw to build multiplex, they need to be built at once, and that usually cost 5M+, no ordinary people other than developers can raise the fund I guess, so it’s kind of a joke😂
All you need is look back at history. The Eastern Block continually suffered housing shortages despite vast tracts of land being available thanks to complete government control over development.
You have no idea what you are espousing let be the snormal upply/demand fundmentals now so distorted by Canadian Banking/Financial conditions NOT comparable to any former 'Eastern Block' economic metric.
Don't forget even interior areas in BC such as the okanagan and either in places like price George and others housing is out of control! Even though those areas have nothing but land! Oh, wait, who holds and controls it? The province to the tune of 95%. Free up the lands for existing communities, farms, ranches, and Canadians to own and use. I know some in real estate that laugh about this and how it props up the landbase costs. Time for a change? Allow Canadians to apply and buy? Sell off lands, not in protected ecological areas? Even 50% from the 56th parallel down to the 49th and see what happens.
The same issue, it's cheaper and easier to build where existing infrastructure is located. This is in and near cities, so your dream of using the 95% of the unused land will be only used by the people will to do the work and basically live off the grid. Hmmm, not viable, never will be.
@DummMoney-rr1fi not accurate at all as much of the interior communities could easily expand and grow planned communities and expand on their infrastructure. Kelowna is a perfect example of how long it took for them to get the province to finally sell them some crown land that squatters were using and the province couldn't or wouldn't police it. Kelowna had to take them to court to finally force them to sell the land so Kelowna could benefit from having the lands they are being forced to police, respond to, and manage. It's not a "dream" to use 95% of the landbase but more so that a lot more land should be available to existing communities. For families that want to live semirural to rural, they should be able to without being forced to pay overpriced land costs just because it's in limited supply. This is a multilayered problem/solution and not just one dimensional. Can it be better and can it be improved upon? I'd say yes!
@@proudcanadian1837 the facts are the current government doesn't even open the door for investors to care enough to explore the idea of buying the "next' nearest plot of land and spending money to extend the infrastructure that little bit more to add on to the existing. I know from our humble interior town of 100k plus that investors are fleeing because of the piss poor rental rules that favour the shitty tenants. I know what a shitty tenant is, because 30 years ago I was one, now I'm a little more in favor of being hard on shitty tenants because that's what it took for me to respect the people who had serious skin in the game. #toughlove
@DummMoney-rr1fi you won't get any arguments from me on the crap situation the current government has put the province and all who call it home in. I could go on, but it sounds like you already know.
@@proudcanadian1837 I do know. However, I am pretty well versed in economics and I'm afraid that the NDP is lacking when it comes to what drives our economy. That is one of the main reasons why I'm a bull on SFHs in BC, and if I'm right my kids will be quite happy come 2050 when I'm too old or dead to care
Rustad policies and repeals will definitely produce more housing starts! The free market running free always brings more investors to the plate! I'm surprised you are disappointed that the NDP policy is good for us as a province and might be repealed. The free market is being stifled, and the NDP is trying to manage everything, which never works over time. I'm wholeheartedly not at all convinced that Ravi and Ebi have done more for housing. Yes, they've put a lot of new policies in place, but that isn't the definition of more. Numbers and statistics are the only thing that matters, and so far that is up for debate.
Wasn’t so much that we feel their policies are “good”… but we are weary of promises without plans - from any politician. In my mind, repealing the plex plan isn’t a great way to help provide more middle housing. Repealing it without suggesting some other solution doesn’t do anything to help either. Outside of that, pulling back air bnb’s and extending tenant timeframes etc. we’re all bad for BC. What’s more we are not fans of the tax municipalities have imposed - they tax the profit out of any future housing projects. The argument was more designed to reflect that for any move forward, the next party will repeal because it’s simply not what the other party is doing. Isn’t there a by partisan solution?
I agree it is progressives that have found every excuse to hyper-over-regulate new home building, but the fault lies with NIMBY councils which can be made up with conservatives too. I want Rustad in power one hundred percent to roll back a host of socialist Eby policies, but Missing Middle loosened regulations I also support. Forcing missing middle deregulation is not socialist at all, in fact the opposite. Ultimately the podcasters are correct - the municipalities present the most obstruction of housing, and I would not mind if the province stepped in and removed municipal power over zoning and permitting altogether. However in the midst of all this talk about missing middle the NDP did an own-goal with the newly imposed handicapped regulations. This will add 50k-80k to the cost of every house, add $500 a month to every mortgage payment or rent payment! nuts. Vote Rustad please
Exactly. Free market policies have always shown to deliver a product or service at what it is worth, and investors spend their capital in areas where they can get a meaningful return on that investment. The current government puts excessively-restrictive policies on the asset-owning class, and acts surprised when the needed investment pulls out due to costs and regulation making that investment no longer worthwhile.
Eby NDP is all nonsense , he is doing bad jobs in last few years. Housing crisis, hospital crisis , hard drug crisis, crime crisis and high living costs crisis under NDP.
How about the tunnel replacement fiasco. The new 8 lane bridge would be done by now costing us taxpayers about 5 times less than their cockememe idea of doubling the tunnel. One of the worst decisions ever made in bc history, thanks Horgan and your unelected puppet Ebi
Those are separate issues...the state of the market has absolutely nothing to do with property taxes. If everyone's property value magically dropped 50% overnight, property taxes would remain the same as they are calculated on a mill rate which would simply be adjusted to match the changes in assessed value.
@@user-le2hu1ct4t I'm not sure what your point is - what I described is literally the legislation and process that is used today to calculate tax assessments. If, say, Vancouver approves a 5% property tax increase for next year as part of the budget, the bc assessments are released on Jan 1 and then the mill rate for the new total taxable amount to make up the property tax assessment is calculated based on those assessed values. They then send you the bill based on that. Many people (perhaps yourself?) mistakenly believe that if home values drop then property tax drops correspondingly which is just a myth. City expenses don't just magically drop because BC Assessment decides to value homes lower.
Connect With Us To Talk Real Estate:
📆 calendly.com/thevancouverlife
_________________________________
This week’s discussion focuses on the current state of the housing market and its central role in the upcoming provincial election. With housing affordability and availability at critical levels, this issue has become a focal point for voters and policymakers. We’ll break down the latest developments, key political stances, and potential implications for homeowners and prospective buyers. The provincial election is just around the corner, and it’s no surprise that housing has emerged as the primary battleground.
After decades of underbuilding, BC finds itself facing a severe housing shortage, with estimates indicating a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of homes. The current party in power, the NDP, has attempted to address this issue through various initiatives, such as the Missing Middle Policy and Transit-Oriented Area (TOA) regulations. These measures aim to increase density by allowing for multiplex units on single-family lots and permitting high-rise developments up to 20 stories near transit hubs.
However, the path to achieving these goals is anything but straightforward. While the province has pushed these initiatives forward, many municipalities have been resistant. Cities like Langley, West Vancouver, and North Vancouver have outright rejected the Missing Middle reforms, opting to maintain lower density levels despite provincial pressure. Even in cities that have embraced the policy, such as Richmond and New Westminster, restrictive Floor Space Ratio (FSR) limits have made it economically unfeasible for developers to build larger multi-family homes, leaving the intended impact on housing supply minimal at best.
Burnaby, on the other hand, has adopted the provincial rules and has positioned itself as a more builder-friendly environment. However, increased municipal fees have made margins razor-thin for developers, which dampens the enthusiasm for new projects. This lack of alignment between provincial aspirations and municipal realities has resulted in an unattractive building environment, hampering the overall effectiveness of these policies.
To further complicate matters, the leader of the BC Conservative Party, John Rustad, has voiced strong opposition to the Missing Middle and TOAH reforms, labeling them as “crazy,” “authoritarian,” and “hardcore socialist.” He has vowed to repeal these initiatives if his party comes to power, which would potentially undo years of planning and hundreds of building permit applications that have been submitted to bring much-needed housing to the market.
Moving east, we see a similar struggle in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), where the latest Municipal Benchmarking Study by the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), developed by Altus Group Economic Consulting, highlights a critical gap between housing supply and population growth. According to the report, the GTA’s housing stock is not keeping up with the rapidly growing population, marking the widest gap in over 50 years. This imbalance points to a worsening housing crisis that demands immediate attention.
One of the primary drivers of this gap is the prolonged approval process for new projects, which takes an average of 20 months. This delay can add between $43,000 to $90,000 per unit, inflating costs for both developers and buyers. Additionally, municipal fees, taxes, and charges now constitute nearly 25% of a home’s cost in the GTA. Since 2022, these fees have risen by $42,000 for low-rise and $32,000 for high-rise developments, adding over $122,000 to the average condo price and $164,000 to single-family homes. With such high barriers to building, the GTA faces an uphill battle in closing the housing gap.
In regulatory news, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) announced this week that it will be easing stress test requirements for homeowners looking to renew their mortgages. Previously, homeowners wishing to switch lenders at renewal had to requalify under stringent stress test conditions-either at a rate of 5.25% or their actual rate plus 2.0%, which currently sits around 6.5% to 7.5%. This made it difficult for many Canadians to switch lenders, effectively locking them into less favorable mortgage terms with their current lenders. The new policy, which goes into effect on November 21st, allows homeowners to do a straight switch to a new lender without undergoing the stress test, provided they are not looking to extend their mortgage’s amortization period.
We finish up this weeks episode with a quick look into how the housing market performed in September as we tee up next weeks stats episode.
Link CRA with mortgage to stop mortgage fraud and banks charging 1% under table
John Rustad's approach is to set a deadline of 3-6 months on granting permits, which is on point, because right now there is no reason why permits take a year or two to be passed. It is either plain incompetence or intentional gatekeeping. Increasing density has a big negative impact on infrastructures like road, electricity grid, water and septic system,... and will like bring down your quality of life.
Yes there is, the workers passing them spend more time wondering when their next coffee break is than rubber stamping the simple applications. Make them get paid per passed application and watch how fast they push them out, and guess what? They'd make double the wage in half the time
NDP is promising building more affordable houses and raising more taxes to the rich. Investors in BC will be facing more taxes and hard times.
Housing affordability is in Toronto and Vancouver. Rents are cheap, they are still way below 50% of average disposable income.
Btw to build multiplex, they need to be built at once, and that usually cost 5M+, no ordinary people other than developers can raise the fund I guess, so it’s kind of a joke😂
The Trudeau years are a lost decade.
They certainly are. Not sure he cares or even can see the damage it's caused
All you need is look back at history. The Eastern Block continually suffered housing shortages despite vast tracts of land being available thanks to complete government control over development.
You have no idea what you are espousing let be the snormal upply/demand fundmentals now so distorted by Canadian Banking/Financial conditions NOT comparable to any former 'Eastern Block' economic metric.
Communist principles make for sad times and unenthusiastic populations
I suggest we adopt more prefab homes😢
Don't forget even interior areas in BC such as the okanagan and either in places like price George and others housing is out of control! Even though those areas have nothing but land! Oh, wait, who holds and controls it? The province to the tune of 95%. Free up the lands for existing communities, farms, ranches, and Canadians to own and use.
I know some in real estate that laugh about this and how it props up the landbase costs.
Time for a change? Allow Canadians to apply and buy? Sell off lands, not in protected ecological areas? Even 50% from the 56th parallel down to the 49th and see what happens.
The same issue, it's cheaper and easier to build where existing infrastructure is located. This is in and near cities, so your dream of using the 95% of the unused land will be only used by the people will to do the work and basically live off the grid. Hmmm, not viable, never will be.
@DummMoney-rr1fi not accurate at all as much of the interior communities could easily expand and grow planned communities and expand on their infrastructure. Kelowna is a perfect example of how long it took for them to get the province to finally sell them some crown land that squatters were using and the province couldn't or wouldn't police it. Kelowna had to take them to court to finally force them to sell the land so Kelowna could benefit from having the lands they are being forced to police, respond to, and manage.
It's not a "dream" to use 95% of the landbase but more so that a lot more land should be available to existing communities. For families that want to live semirural to rural, they should be able to without being forced to pay overpriced land costs just because it's in limited supply.
This is a multilayered problem/solution and not just one dimensional. Can it be better and can it be improved upon? I'd say yes!
@@proudcanadian1837 the facts are the current government doesn't even open the door for investors to care enough to explore the idea of buying the "next' nearest plot of land and spending money to extend the infrastructure that little bit more to add on to the existing. I know from our humble interior town of 100k plus that investors are fleeing because of the piss poor rental rules that favour the shitty tenants. I know what a shitty tenant is, because 30 years ago I was one, now I'm a little more in favor of being hard on shitty tenants because that's what it took for me to respect the people who had serious skin in the game. #toughlove
@DummMoney-rr1fi you won't get any arguments from me on the crap situation the current government has put the province and all who call it home in. I could go on, but it sounds like you already know.
@@proudcanadian1837 I do know. However, I am pretty well versed in economics and I'm afraid that the NDP is lacking when it comes to what drives our economy. That is one of the main reasons why I'm a bull on SFHs in BC, and if I'm right my kids will be quite happy come 2050 when I'm too old or dead to care
Sell some crown land. Leasing doesn’t count!
INTERNATIONAL PROPERTIES ARE BETTER QUALITY, PRICE, TAX #TEAMWESTMENEXODUS
yes, but they aren't in Canada
@@DummMoney-rr1filol exactly
Rustad policies and repeals will definitely produce more housing starts! The free market running free always brings more investors to the plate! I'm surprised you are disappointed that the NDP policy is good for us as a province and might be repealed. The free market is being stifled, and the NDP is trying to manage everything, which never works over time. I'm wholeheartedly not at all convinced that Ravi and Ebi have done more for housing. Yes, they've put a lot of new policies in place, but that isn't the definition of more. Numbers and statistics are the only thing that matters, and so far that is up for debate.
Wasn’t so much that we feel their policies are “good”… but we are weary of promises without plans - from any politician. In my mind, repealing the plex plan isn’t a great way to help provide more middle housing. Repealing it without suggesting some other solution doesn’t do anything to help either. Outside of that, pulling back air bnb’s and extending tenant timeframes etc. we’re all bad for BC. What’s more we are not fans of the tax municipalities have imposed - they tax the profit out of any future housing projects. The argument was more designed to reflect that for any move forward, the next party will repeal because it’s simply not what the other party is doing. Isn’t there a by partisan solution?
I agree it is progressives that have found every excuse to hyper-over-regulate new home building, but the fault lies with NIMBY councils which can be made up with conservatives too. I want Rustad in power one hundred percent to roll back a host of socialist Eby policies, but Missing Middle loosened regulations I also support. Forcing missing middle deregulation is not socialist at all, in fact the opposite. Ultimately the podcasters are correct - the municipalities present the most obstruction of housing, and I would not mind if the province stepped in and removed municipal power over zoning and permitting altogether. However in the midst of all this talk about missing middle the NDP did an own-goal with the newly imposed handicapped regulations. This will add 50k-80k to the cost of every house, add $500 a month to every mortgage payment or rent payment! nuts. Vote Rustad please
Glad I hoarded SFHs in BC prior to Horgan and Ebi
Exactly. Free market policies have always shown to deliver a product or service at what it is worth, and investors spend their capital in areas where they can get a meaningful return on that investment. The current government puts excessively-restrictive policies on the asset-owning class, and acts surprised when the needed investment pulls out due to costs and regulation making that investment no longer worthwhile.
Eby NDP is all nonsense , he is doing bad jobs in last few years. Housing crisis, hospital crisis , hard drug crisis, crime crisis and high living costs crisis under NDP.
How about the tunnel replacement fiasco. The new 8 lane bridge would be done by now costing us taxpayers about 5 times less than their cockememe idea of doubling the tunnel. One of the worst decisions ever made in bc history, thanks Horgan and your unelected puppet Ebi
yes lets keep housing pricing high, so the government can keep collecting ridicules property taxes, and we get nothing from it.
Those are separate issues...the state of the market has absolutely nothing to do with property taxes. If everyone's property value magically dropped 50% overnight, property taxes would remain the same as they are calculated on a mill rate which would simply be adjusted to match the changes in assessed value.
@@user-le2hu1ct4t I'm not sure what your point is - what I described is literally the legislation and process that is used today to calculate tax assessments. If, say, Vancouver approves a 5% property tax increase for next year as part of the budget, the bc assessments are released on Jan 1 and then the mill rate for the new total taxable amount to make up the property tax assessment is calculated based on those assessed values. They then send you the bill based on that.
Many people (perhaps yourself?) mistakenly believe that if home values drop then property tax drops correspondingly which is just a myth. City expenses don't just magically drop because BC Assessment decides to value homes lower.
They are trying to bring housing cost down, but like I learned in Econ 101, let the free market run is the most efficient solution
@@user-le2hu1ct4t I've been around long enough to know that the prices will never drop much. In 5+ years, prices will keep going.