this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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We're 3 million homes in the hole according to CMHC. Nobody is pretending we're gonna get those built in the next five years. Along with building houses, increasing density, and reducing limitations on construction; we need to lower the cost of houses.
Like the Lemmite up thread says: tax unreasonable house gains, and disincentivize rentals.
We're in a crisis, we can't wait to build.
I’m 100% on board with solutions to help mitigate the short-term effects if we also start building now for the medium and longer terms.
The reason I was being prickly on this is that my home city and province (Vancouver) has been doing these feel-good things for years as a politically expedient distraction and excuse to not prioritize building.
So it scares me when people suggest these as the solution —and I’ll include Carneys announcement in with that same bucket. If folks suggest these as a stop-gap relief to the current situation and are also gonna build our way out? Alright I’m on board with that.
Yes. I think that's a pretty universal sentiment. I don't think I've seen anyone say that we should just do GST rebates - we want construction and immediate relief.
It'll probably be a generation or so until the proportion of homes to people gets back to affordable territory. That's not gonna help me, but hopefully it'll help my kids.
In the meantime, we need to adjust other parts of government to get money out of housing: remove capital gains exemptions on housing, implement the anti-money laundering stuff BC has been asking for; do all the zoning crap; train people for the trades; import trades workers (with a path to citizenship); increase density; etc etc etc.
You're correct that no one says that, but that seems to be what's been happening. So I want the focus to be on the things that are going to deliver the actual results.
But maybe also I can get my head out of my own ass and not derail your enthusiasm for helping things in the here and now. So yeah, I'm with you. But let's make those things a comma. I want my leaders at the federal, provincial, and municipal level to start moving the needle today, and stay focused in the months and years to come and ensure that the steps they are taking are the ones that are making meaningful improvements.
Awesome! Please email your MP and ask them to address the housing crisis. I typically send something along the lines of:
I've sent similar messages to my MP, MLA, and councillors over the past few years.
I have written my MP about this multiple times, signed a counter-petition against a movement to block a high rise in my building, and promoted the development with my neighbours. I’m also meeting my MP tomorrow and I won’t shut up about this, I promise.
And if they don’t move the needle I’m gonna vote the bastards out and support the next ones instead. I don’t care if it drops my house value — because my kids deserve to be able to afford to live.
I haven't gone as far as meeting with my MP, but I ran a mailer site so people could mail their three levels of rep. It sent a lot of messages and got some feedback from officials, but it's hard to know if any of them cared.
Meeting in person sounds more effective.
Same. I think there's a lot of (potential) homeowners who feel that way.
Nice! By the way I wasn’t trying to win some dick measuring contest, when I say I’m going to meet him it’s more like I’m volunteering for the election and I’ll get maybe a few minutes at most in. I appreciate your activism, you fucking rock.
But housing has been my #1 issue and only recently dropped to #2 thanks to our need to defend our country and economy. However using BC lumber to build Canadian homes and apartment buildings instead of shipping it down south ties into that at least tangentially.
Another part to consider is how house sizes have gone up by a fair margin over the past 50 - 70 years. If you look at old bungalows built after the war they are 1000 - 1500 sqft homes, modern builds (around me at least) are all 2500+ sqft. So part of why homes are more expensive is that we're building more home on each lot (just speaking on fully detached homes here).
A "starter home" isn't really a thing anymore.
It seems like we have lots of single bedroom starter condos at 500-900 sqft, but I think those are designed to appeal to investors. 😬
I think a lot of people would be open to smaller homes/condos (1200 sqft) if they were affordable and nice.
Let’s imagine a world where an unapologetic socialist NDP leader stood up and said: “the market has failed to deliver homes at a price the median Canadian family can affords. So our govt will build homes across the country, employing Canadians and using Canadian products. These will not be luxury condos for the rich, but they will be functional and good, and will be made the wood and materials we used to send to America at a discount. And we will close the gap in 5 years, and deliver public monthly status reports on what we have accomplished.”
After the election, assuming Singh steps down, can we all agree to get someone who says something like that? Pretty please? Because I already got my wish with a perfect candidate to match my way of thinking, and I want you to be waiting in the wings if our way fails yet again.
That's exactly what I want. And I also want tax changes that stop homes from being a investment vehicles. That's part of what has run prices up, in addition to the stuff we both listed above.