fbpx
North AmericaWorldwide

Canadian housing market changes: Ontario to enforce rent control to calm their market

The Canadian housing market is undergoing some changes now that the Ontario government is unveiling a package of measures to cool their housing market down. These changes include a new tax on foreign property speculators and expansion of rent-control measures.

There have talks that Toronto’s housing market is very similar to Vancouver’s – it is overheating. Ontario Premier and Canadian politician – Kathleen Wynee – said at an event in Ottawa:

“What we’re aiming to do is to bring in some initiatives that will help people in that whole continuum of housing, right from rental through to purchasing a home, without having unintended consequences, because that is my fear in a market.”

The biggest changes are expected to be the expansion of limits on annual rent increases across the entire Canadian housing market, including newly constructed units, The Globe and Mail.

Many people who are renting at the moment have felt angered by it and have been complaining about big rent increases across the last few months. The Canadian housing market has gone from strength to strength and the real estate prices have soared in the Toronto area on a large scale.

Ms Wynne is planning to reveal all of her plans soon but they are still working on the fine details. Renters can expect the rent to be capped from increases at a level base inflation rate.

The formula limits increase to 1.5% this year but landlords can make requests to the province for permission to increase rents by more if they have improved the building by a reputable amount.

To calm the Toronto housing market down, even more, they are considering a 15% tax on property purchases by foreign investors/buyers. The Canadian housing market, through this initiative, is aiming to target speculators. They are also expected to work alongside municipalities on a vacancy tax for unoccupied homes in the Toronto area. This should be effective in encouraging homeowners to rent out their unoccupied homes.

However, the rent-control proposals are causing mayhem already. These controls could really upset small investors who may see their real estate prices rise by a percentage that could really jeopardise their business. Industry experts are saying that they believe that the government should go through developers before making decisions because the decision-making processes could really upset the economy. The consequences could be enormous.

On top of all of this, the Ontario government has said that they will begin collecting data on home buyers on a larger scale when they complete land registration documents to develop more data on foreign ownership. This is another change in the Canadian housing market.

Buyers will have to give their information about where they live, their citizenship and permanent residency status. If a person from a business buys a property then they will have to provide information about who owns or takes charge of the corporation.

The Canadian housing market may be facing a small crisis situation that is felt by the society, but only the future will show whether this crisis will grow or be stopped through positive regulations.

Written by Gemma Smith

Show More

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
Translate »