Poilievre pledges to remove GST from purchase of new homes sold for under $1M
Pledge expands Conservative promise to remove GST from new homes with rental prices below market value
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging to eliminate the GST on new homes sold for under $1 million if his party wins the next federal election.
Poilievre made the announcement early Monday morning in a campaign-style video released online and held a media conference in Ottawa to provide more detail.
“The GST was not meant to apply to the basic necessities of food and housing,” Poilievre said Monday.
The Conservatives say the move would save Canadians $40,000 on a $800,000 house and would spur the construction of an additional 30,000 homes in Canada every year.
This announcement builds on a previous pledge by Poilievre to remove the GST on construction of any new homes with rental prices below market value.
Poilievre said that he is not concerned housing developers will refuse to pass on the savings.
“Businesses will pass on those savings because if they don’t, then buyers will buy from someone else. That’s what competition means,” he said.
Kevin Lee, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, said he is also confident home builders will pass on the savings because they need housing to be affordable.
“If people can’t afford to buy, then builders can’t build houses and that’s why we don’t have as many housing starts as we need right now,” Lee told CBC News.
“Anything that’s going to lower the actual selling price of the house, which this would empirically, is going to help create more housing supply.”
Lee said the GST on new housing is eroding affordability and removing the tax is long overdue. “We’re definitely supportive of this kind of move,” he said.