45
Waiving the GST was just a start. These 3 ideas could help get more housing built in Canada (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

From faster approvals to hiring more workers, governments need to step up: experts

Peter Armstrong · CBC News

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

There are already tax discounts on primary residence, there's a capital gains exemption. Doesn't matter because housing prices still go up too much. And why do they keep going up? Hmm... maybe something about a shortage of housing?

Speculators can't single handedly increase the price because they still need someone to buy or rent the property for a worthwhile price.

There are areas where housing prices stagnate and it's not like some speculators can just go in there and force prices to go up.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    Not sure what point you are trying to make? What does capital gains exemption have to do with anything? If anything we should follow the US and only exempt a base amount.

    I'm saying use taxes to disincentivize speculation.

    There's a reason the market became detached from fundamentals when rates were lowered. I'm not saying we don't need to build more. Of course we do. But I'd rather not build homes that go to more investors than FTHB like is currently happening. Otherwise the situation only gets better if you over build.

    Also yes, it only takes a small number of speculators to create unaffordable housing. Real estate is a market based on benchmarks. You should look into the history of the BC market and how a small number of speculators drove that market bananas.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent