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  1. Here’s how Mayor Tory can deliver on housing

    Mayor John Tory received a huge vote of confidence Monday, receiving 63.5 per cent of the vote in Toronto’s municipal election, eclipsing the next most popular candidate by more than two-to-one. On one hand, this can be interpreted as an ...

  2. Housing takes centre stage in Toronto election

    Though Toronto’s mayoral election is still months away, this has not stopped candidates from trading barbs on hot button issues. In particular, it appears housing has taken centre stage, with frontrunner candidates (current Mayor John ...

  3. Toronto takes small step forward with laneway houses

    Toronto City Council recently approved an important amendment to its planning rules, allowing homeowners to add laneway units to their properties without changing zoning bylaws. Such units—standalone rental homes facing lanes or alleys ...

  4. A lagging housing supply drives Ontario’s affordability woes

    The Wynne government almost exclusively targeted housing demand—not supply. ...

  5. How the Wynne government killed the economics of building new rental units

    In an attempt to promote the construction of rental properties, Ontario’s Wynne government has announced it will fund 13 Ontario municipalities to rebate local fees for rental housing builders. Queen’s Park hopes that, by giving $125 ...

  6. More power for Ontario municipalities means more responsibility to build housing

    The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) is no more. The Ontario government recently announced that the OMB—the tribunal charged with adjudicating land-use planning disputes between local governments, citizens and property developers—will be ...

  7. Trudeau government’s new housing benefit seems to ignore regional differences

    As part of its National Housing Strategy, the Trudeau government announced today that it will directly subsidize low-income households with an average of $2,500 annually for housing costs. Details are pending, but the logic is simple: if ...

  8. Queen’s Park and Toronto City Hall put the squeeze on renters

    Appeared in the Toronto Sun, November 10, 2017 Statistics Canada recently released data from last year’s census on housing across the country, revealing, among other things, a spike in the number of renters in Toronto. Let’s start with the numbers. ...

  9. Canadians can access much bigger mortgages today compared to 15 years ago

    Amid speculation about what the Bank of Canada’s recent interest rate increase could mean for homebuyers, it’s important to remember the bigger picture—rates are historically low. Thanks to falling interest rates and growing incomes, ...

  10. By targeting foreign buyers, Queen’s Park misses the point

    Appeared in the Toronto Sun, July 30, 2017 According to a recent announcement from Queen’s Park, 4.7 per cent of properties purchased in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe (between April 24 and May 26) were acquired by foreign individuals or corporations. ...