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1. B.C. government acknowledges how land-use regulations help determine home prices

   The Government of British Columbia recently released a report about the extent and effects of money laundering in the province’s real estate sector. It’s understandably difficult to measure criminal activity specifically designed to go ...

2. If Toronto millennials want more density, there’s plenty of room to grow

   Last November, the Toronto Region Board of Trade published a survey of young professionals (aged 18 to 39) where respondents expressed overwhelming support for higher residential density as a way of boosting the housing supply. Indeed, ...

3. Three hurdles Ontario homebuilders must overcome to build new homes in a timely manner

   The Ontario government has acted on a key tenet of its housing plan —holding a roundtable with municipalities and the homebuilding sector to streamline housing development approvals. This is good news for Ontarians, whose housing options ...

4. Retroactive nature of new tax on foreign owners threatens rule of law, investment in B.C.

   Appeared in the Vancouver Sun, Aug. 5, 2016 Mike de Jong, B.C.’s finance minister, recently and unexpectedly announced an additional property transfer tax of 15 per cent on foreign nationals purchasing residential property in Metro Vancouver. Whatever the ...

5. CMHC confirms that housing supply is the problem in Vancouver

   The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released its quarterly housing market assessments for Canada’s major urban centres, noting that “evidence of problematic conditions” in Vancouver moved from moderate in April to strong ...

6. B.C. Budget insight: Vancouver’s affordability concerns need municipal attention

   In an effort to make housing more affordable in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia’s latest provincial budget exempts newly-built homes worth up to $750,000 from the property transfer tax. This change could cut the tax bill on certain ...

7. Foreign homebuyer debate in Vancouver requires some much-needed perspective

   A recent study co-authored by a B.C. MLA and a city planner has once again stoked anxiety over the impact of foreign homebuyers on housing prices in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. The headlines noted that 70 per cent of detached homes listed in ...

8. Land-transfer taxes are bad economic medicine in Ontario and beyond

   It has been reported that the government of Ontario plans to allow municipalities to increase their land-transfer taxes; this would be ill-advised. The province’s graduated land-transfer tax currently ranges from one half to two per cent ...