Nenshi’s fight will affect housing affordability
I’m one of the home builders that Mayor Naheed Nenshi has been trying to pick a fight with both before and during this election.
I have not taken his bait because, quite frankly, this is not about me. My shoulders are broad enough to deflect his mischaracterizations and those that ensued through the media.
This is not about me, but I have become a distraction to what it is really about. It is about you and where you choose to live for whatever reasons drive you, and ultimately, it is about housing affordability and what that means to our city.
You are the one and only expert on the first issue of why and where you choose to live and don’t let anyone tell you any differently.
I know a lot about the second issue of affordable housing, and I say that with a great deal of humility, as it is expertise that I have gained through my father, who started in the housing business in 1962.
I’ve been working in the home industry both growing our business, but also contributing to the advancement of our industry through association work, for more than 33 years myself.
What I can tell you definitively in my years of experience and understanding about the market, which I learned from you, our customers, is this: Whatever the levy is on new homes makes absolutely no difference to my company. The levy is a flow-through tax charged to the developer for each new home that they build and it covers 100 per cent of the infrastructure to build communities and contribute its proportionate share to offset the infrastructure.
This tax flows directly through to the homeowner in the same way that gas tax flows through from the oil and gas companies. This is a fact, plain and simple. Some politicians would have you believe this tax isn’t high enough. While I will leave this for others to discuss, I will say that where I learned my math, 100 per cent is 100 per cent, and I believe to say otherwise is disingenuous.
So why do some politicians want to pick a fight with me? Because they would rather pick a fight with a successful businessman and make it seem like I am profiting from high house prices rather than pick a fight with consumers and acknowledge the role that City of Calgary policy is having on housing affordability. My experience tells me that Calgary is soon to face a housing affordability crisis, possibly within 24 months. Over the last eight years, we’ve seen this play out. Eight years ago, $285,000 would buy you a 2,000-squarefoot single family home with a doublecar garage on a 36-foot-wide lot. Today, it will buy you a 1,200-square-foot multifamily unit with a single garage 14 feet wide.
My fear is that in the not too distant future, if things continue as they are, the purchasing power for the average Calgary family
Homeowners can choose where they live and many are taking their homebuying dollars to surrounding communities.
will erode to the point where home ownership is no longer an option.
Again, let me say our business is not affected whether our customer wants the former or the latter. We have and will continue to adopt housing to conform to whatever the market dictates and can afford. But who is speaking up for the homeowners? Government policy impacts the price of housing. That’s a fact. The price of housing impacts our economy. That’s a fact.
Homeowners can choose where they live and many are taking their homebuying dollars to surrounding communities. People are voting with their wallets, as they always do. That is a fact. How you view this conversation about housing can change the course for Calgary and help maintain our advantage into the future. I believe that too is a fact.
And let me close by say- ing this: I for one support the idea of speaking out and getting involved in the democratic process. This has obviously gotten me in a little bit of hot water over the years. But I maintain we need more not less democratic engagement. I for one am supporting business-minded candidates and this is no secret. I do this with the hope of stemming the tide on the affordable housing issue — plain and simple.
Who you support is up to you, but I do challenge you to see through the distractions and understand what is the real issue.
This fight pitting inner city against outer communities is destructive, and I for one am ready for it to end so that the industry, the city and most importantly, Calgarians, can build a great city in which we can all find a place to call home.