Toronto voters want land transfer tax gone as home sales dip

A majority of voters in the Greater Toronto Area say they want Ontario’s next government to do away with the province’s land transfer tax, according to a poll.

An online Ipsos Reid survey that was backed by the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) and unveiled on Monday said 77 per cent of GTA residents support reducing the tax, which is imposed on buyers across the province and ranges from 0.5 to 2.5 per cent depending on the home being bought. Meanwhile, 68 per cent of the 1,200 GTA residents polled between May 18 and 22 said they want the tax repealed and 69 per cent said where a party stands on housing affordability will influence how they vote on election day.

The Ipsos poll comes as the GTA grapples with increasing demand for affordable housing in the wake of last year’s frenzied pace that caused home prices to soar. On Monday, TREB numbers for May were released, revealing that last year’s moves by Ontario’s Liberal government to tax vacant properties and non-residents purchasing homes within the province have cooled the market, but many are still hesitating to wade into it.

While all of the parties have rolled out platforms with measures aimed at addressing housing problems, none have directly taken aim at the provincial land transfer tax, which TREB has long lobbied against. Instead, the NDP has promised a crackdown on housing speculators and an overhaul of the government’s zoning regulations, the Conservatives say they will increase the supply of affordable housing and the Liberals are vowing to work with developers, municipalities and other stakeholders to enable small-scale residential intensification that would allow homeowners to build multi-unit projects on their land.

In their last monthly housing numbers report before the election, TREB said GTA sales in May were down by 22.2 per cent compared with the same month last year.