As Canada and other countries try to deal with their respective affordable housing challenges, a Dutch cabinet minister recently attempted to even the playing field and expand home ownership among the less wealthy.
Housing Minister Hugo de Jonge had proposed a law that would have allowed municipalities to force homeowners, whose homes were worth up to $355,000 Euros (about $517,000 Cdn) to put their property on the market only to low and middle-income earners.
That meant local governments could refuse to grant residency permits to wealthy potential buyers and keep them out of the market for homes up to that value
The problem the policy is trying to fix is one that’s particularly acute in Canada, said Jeremy Withers, the outreach co-ordinator for the University of Toronto’s School of Cities Affordable Housing Challenge Project.
“And that problem is that prospective first-time buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete in bidding wars for housing,” said Withers, who is also a PHD candidate in the department of Geography & Planning at the University of Toronto.
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Housing issues in Canada
Over the past decade, Withers said, a fast-growing share of housing has been bid up and acquired by higher income Canadians who already own their homes but are building up portfolios of investment properties.
For example, 45 per cent of Ontario condo apartments and 18 per cent of Ontario houses are not owner occupied, he said, citing Statistics Canada data.
“I think policies that aim at curtailing demand from kind of wealthy, high income bidders would likely help to mitigate continuing rise in prices and wealth inequality that’s really come to define Canada’s private housing system.”
De Jonge’s proposal, while initially looking like it might have support in parliament, was ultimately defeated, but not before stirring up controversy and opposition for infringing on the property rights of homeowners.
The proposal by Dutch Housing Minister Hugo De Jonge, seen speaking to media in The Hague in May 2022, was ultimately defeated, but not before stirring up controversy and opposition for infringing on the property rights of homeowners. (Lex Van Lieshout/AFP/Getty Images)
Still, Dutch proponents of the law echoed Withers’ comments, noting that much cheaper houses are now out of reach for people with an average salary.
“Now house seekers in a village are outbid by people from outside who have a lot of money to spend,” Christian Union party member Pieter Grinwis told the Netherlands’ AD newspaper.
Although Canada faces a similar issues, some housing experts here questioned whether such measures are the right approach.
“For the Canadian context, what we need more fluidity in the market, not more constraints,” said Mathieu Laberge, an government advisor at KPMG and former chief economist at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
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‘Unforeseen negative consequences’
“When you look in the literature, coercive approaches, they’re well intentioned, but they tend to bring in unforeseen negative consequences,” Laberge said.
“I think it would set up a whole lot of disincentive. If you own a house in this spectrum and now you see a large portion of your potential buyers forbidden to buy, why would new home owners enter this market?
Paul Anglin professor of real estate at the University of Guelph, questioned some of the practical aspects of the Dutch proposal, and whether it would just cause housing prices to rise.
“If I were a seller, I would tend to choose a list price above the limit. Doing so would remove the constraint,” he said in an email.
“If the goal of the proposal is to improve the social goal of fairness, should the law account for the income of the seller also?”
Subsidies, building housing, co-ops
Anglin suggested that the responsibility for housing affordability is being dumped on the home owner.
“A solution which is administratively simpler than this proposal would be to use tax money to directly subsidize purchases by people who are deemed worthy,” he said.
Toronto city councillor Brad Bradford, who is also chair of the Planning & Housing Committee, said the solution to the housing affordability crisis isn’t more bureaucracy, or having the government decide who is allowed to buy someone’s house.
“The solution is to build more homes, so people have more options to rent or buy at different price points,” he said in a statement. “The city needs to streamline approvals and eliminate unnecessary rules and guidelines to get more housing built faster.”
Toronto city councillor Brad Bradford, who is also chair of the Planning & Housing Committee, said the solution to the housing affordability crisis isn’t more bureaucracy, but rather building more homes. (Nav Rahi/CBC)
Laberge believes there should be more focus on initiatives like co-ops — rental apartments where a collective of tenants are the owners of the building and where some people pay a higher rent to enable more affordable units for those who need them.
“We used to have a bunch of co-ops,” Laberge said. “Co-ops are successful worldwide in terms of providing affordable housing, but somehow Canada departed from co-ops in the early ’80s. That’s something we could revisit.”
Withers said that while he supports the Dutch idea of addressing the issue of demand and inequality, he was unclear how exactly the mechanics of the proposal would work.
Taxation on investors
He suggested that in Canada, a better way to open the housing market to less wealthy prospective buyers would be through taxation on investors.
That could include increasing the capital gains tax on money made when investors sell residences, or requiring an additional land transfer tax for buyers who already own multiple properties, he said.
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As some prospective home buyers watched prices climb to dozens of times their income during the pandemic, they pinned their hopes of ownership on a market crash. And for nearly a year starting last April, prices did fall – in Toronto, the average price of a home dropped about 18%. But now, for the last two months, prices have been on the rise again. So with houses still historically unaffordable, what would it take for Canada’s home prices to drop or crash toward affordability, and would the economic damage do more harm than low prices can help? Today, Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives senior economist Marc Lee explains the paths that remain to ownership for the low and middle class. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
As well, Withers suggested that local investors who don’t plan to live in the homes they buy could be made to pay the same taxes that foreign investors face when purchasing units.
“And this would discourage them from outbidding prospective homeowners,” he said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
