Trudeau doesn’t want you to own a home — he wants to be your landlord
Liberals should rethink plan to get into the condo business
Everyone agrees that Canada faces a housing shortage. But it’s not a shortage of homes: it’s a shortage of homes people can afford. In Toronto, for example, there is currently a glut of condos on the market. Prices have fallen as investors offload properties: high interest rates mean their mortgage payments exceed the rents they can get.
Homes have become unaffordable because of the disconnect between wages and prices. Why? Because there’s a disconnect between wages and prices. The average price-to-earnings ratio in Canada more than doubled from 3.2 in 1980 to 6.7 in 2020. Vancouver currently has the highest price to earnings ratio you need a household income of $208,000 and $226,000, respectively. Not exactly middle-class.
Now, the federal government claims to have an answer. The Liberals propose to convert unused public lands and buildings to housing — an idea the Conservatives have been floating for a couple of years. But here’s the twist: residents won’t own the land the home is built on. Instead, the government will lease the land to developers so it can maintain ownership and “keep home prices low.”
In other words, it plans to get into the condo business, which private developers are abandoning because the market is saturated. In Toronto, several condo projects have gone into receivership in recent years, including The One, a supposedly “iconic” tower at the corner of Yonge and Bloor.
Too funny. A picture truly does say a 1000 words. Trudeau looks about as comfortable holding a simple hammer as would a grade schooler standing in front of the controls for an MRI machine. Pathetically transparent. It also reminds me of this….
https://tinyurl.com/hu7c5s5c