'It's nice in theory': Residents skeptical federal budget's housing plan will cool Toronto's market
CBC
Mohammed Aaref's dream of owning a home in Toronto is slowly dying.
"You save for 30 years — you do this and that — but it's not enough," he said.
Nearing retirement age, he fears his window to buy a home has closed.
"I waited too long," Aaref said. "It's never a good time, I guess, and unfortunately, the good time has gone for me."
The Trudeau government tabled its first budget Thursday since being re-elected in September, outlining plans to respond to a bleak economic picture shaped by the pandemic and rising inflation, while promising to tackle the issue of housing affordability for millions of Canadians like Aaref.
But they have a steep hill to climb. Prices are so high in most markets across the country that nine out of 10 aspiring home buyers surveyed in a recent poll said they've all but given up on their own dreams of owning a home.
The average price of a home in Canada has doubled since the Liberals took office in 2015, reaching $816,720 in February. That figure is far steeper in the Greater Toronto Area, creeping up nearly 28 per cent year-over-year to reach $1.3 million in February.
Among the newly-announced measures in the budget is a ban on foreign buyers purchasing non-recreational, residential property in Canada for the next two years. Foreign students, workers and permanent residents would be exempt.
But many experts familiar with Toronto's real estate market say the ban doesn't go far enough.
"I do not think it would be a major blow to the rapid escalation in housing prices," Murtaza Haider, a professor of real estate management at Ryerson University, told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Thursday.
"It's not enough, but certainly it's not going to hurt any Canadian."
A Statistics Canada report found that less than five per cent of homes in Toronto and Vancouver were owned by non-residents. Plus, Haider says, previous versions of such plans have not had much of an impact.
The bigger issue, he says, stems from supply, not demand. Had there been more houses built over the past half-century, Haider argues, home prices wouldn't be what they are today.
Tim Hudak, CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association, agrees.
City council has approved a 3.6 per cent increase in municipal property taxes for next year. The decision follows five days of debate on adjustments to next year's civic budget.
Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish has resigned from the Peel Police Service Board.
Public health in Yellowknife is reducing some services over the holiday season due to staffing shortages.
Two premiers are asking Ottawa to cover the provincial cost of the Trudeau government's promised tax holiday.
Former Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt fist-pumped from the prisoner's box as a Calgary judge acquitted him on all four counts of uttering threats to a group of 13- and 14-year-old boys whom he chased in a truck through his southwest neighbourhood last spring.
Buddhist monks and nuns who live in eastern Prince Edward Island say they were disappointed to hear some of the concerns expressed at a planning meeting this past week in the Town of Three Rivers.
The Alberta government reiterated its plans Friday to move forward on a passenger rail system for the province, with a goal to finish its master plan by summer 2025.
Pat King, a key figure in what became the Freedom Convoy that paralyzed downtown Ottawa in early 2022, has been found guilty of five charges for his role in the protest.
The Ontario government is looking to expand presumptive coverage for kidney and colorectal cancers for firefighters, whose occupation puts them at a higher risk for the diseases.
A Quesnel, B.C. man serving a life sentence for a 2017 Yukon murder will be able to resume fighting his conviction after a panel of appeal court judges agreed to reinstate his case.
A new report says smokers are spending less money on cigarettes in Alberta, while hundreds of millions of dollars are instead being used to buy illegal smokes for a fraction of the price.