RBC report outlines 7 ways to ease housing shortage
A new report has suggested that Canada's housing market is broken and is offering up a few fixes. RBC Economics stated in a recent missive that by 2030 more than half of 1.9 million new households will not be able to afford the purchase of a home. Already, inadequate supply is leading to an affordability crisis, it added, with about two-thirds of urban markets in Canada having ownership costs exceeding median income by 35 per cent.
As well, the study estimated that only 45 per cent of all households could afford an average priced condominium apartment while 26 per cent could afford a single-family detached home. That's up from 61 and 49 per cent, respectively, two decades ago.
In turn, the report offered seven ways to boost supply to fix the problem.
1. Aggressively expand the labour pool, allowing for more construction of homes by prioritizing immigration for individuals with related skills, quickly recognizing their credentials while, at the same time, setting higher targets for trade school enrolment in Canada.
2. Develop new technologies — like prefabricated homes and pre-approved designs — to build homes faster.
3. Speed up the approval process for housing projects, reducing regulatory requirements while harmonizing building codes.
4. Ease zoning restrictions, allowing for more density in neighbourhoods and more diversity of housing types to make land use more productive.
5. Reduce government charges on home construction and sales, while using more cost-efficient practices and materials to lower new home prices.
6. Provide more incentives to build purpose-built apartments, including waiving development charges and allowing construction on publicly owned land.
7. Expand the housing stock by reclaiming units from short-term housing rental while making it easier for existing homes to build secondary suites, as well as facilitating conversion of non-residential buildings to residential.