Liberal Housing Platform
  
Supply
➤ 1.4 million homes in 4 years
↳ $4 billion dollar accelerator fund for cities
↳ Indigenous housing strategy promised
↳ $2.7 Billion over 4 years to National Housing Co-investment Fund
↳ $600 million for office space conversion
↳ Additional $567 Million to end chronic homelessness ($2.2 billion previously committed)
➤ 2 year ban on foreign, non-resident purchases of residential property (excl. recreational)
➤ Flipper tax - 100% capital gains tax if owned < 12 months
Qualification
➤ Modification to the First-Time Homebuyer Incentive to allow an option for shared equity or deferred loan (currently shared equity)
➤ Increase insurance eligibility cap to $1.25 million, indexed to inflation
↳ 25% Mortgage insurance premium reduction
Anti-Fraud & Crime Measures
➤ Beneficial Ownership Registry
➤ New Federal Crimes Agency - anti-fraud and money laundering measures
Financial Assistance
➤ Double the Home Buyers tax Credit
➤ $40,000 tax free First Home Savings Account
➤ Reno tax credit of 15% (max $50,000 / $7,500) for family members
➤ Rent to Own Program - $1 Billion
Miscellaneous
➤ Stop excessive profits in the Financialization of Housing - possible new REIT tax
➤ Discourage Renovictions, possible new rental income tax regime
➤ Home Buyers' Bill of Rights:
↳ ban on blind bidding
↳ disclosure of representation of both buyer and seller by same realtor
↳ Right to a home inspection
↳ Require consumers to be informed of options, including FTHBI
↳ Lenders must provide up to 6 month mortgage deferral for life events
For the entire platform visit: https://liberal.ca/our-platform/
My Two Cents
Maybe you've decided already. Maybe you're on the fence.
Housing has become a hot topic in this year's Federal Election and all of the parties have announced a plan to tackle affordability of housing in Canada.
At the end of the day, we need more supply. Full stop. All of the incentives and programs to making housing more affordable or decrease demand will only temporarily relieve an increase in prices or affordability in certain pockets of the country.
Canada has very aggressive immigration policies, which we need and should maintain. Canada has a goal of welcoming 400,000 new Canadians every year. That's the equivalent of adding the population of the City of Oshawa to Canada every year.
If we're not building enough homes of all shapes and sizes, the lack of supply will cause prices to rise. It's not foreign buyers or wages or government loans. It's a critical lack of supply where people want to live.
We seem to be pretty good at building condos in Toronto, but COVID has accelerated the spread of people out to smaller towns as they seek out bigger properties and more space. Up until recently, supply has only been a big city problem. It's at least briefly a problem all over Canada, which is why this is now an election issue.
I think it's a problem that is going to dissipate in smaller towns, but I'm glad that it's at least an issue that is getting national attention so we can start to plan and build more effectively.
Each of the major parties have a plan to build more supply, but saying they're going to build a certain number of housing units, is much easier said than done. Is it even possible for the government to build the promised number of houses? Take into account the infrastructure, land, politics and red tape that goes into housing development and then decide what is a campaign promise and what is the reality.
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