UDI President Releases Five-Point Plan to Fix Housing

Our industry often relies on the policy expertise of the Urban Development Institute, and its president, Anne McMullin, is an eloquent conveyer of our point of view.

In January, she published a five-point plan to address the many housing issues facing British Columbians.

• Speeding up the homebuilding process through increased capacity for permit approvals at the municipal levels. Delays in building add to the costs of housing, and they’re inevitably passed on to the buyer.
• The construction of more rental units, like our recently opened 191-unit purpose-built rental project Willoughby Walk in Langley. She recommends an innovative policy to promote these projects: a provincial sales tax exemption for building materials on rental projects.
• Modernize neighbourhood design through adapting zoning standards, allowing for housing beyond just single-family homes.
• Incentivized construction near transit lines in order to maximize the capital we pour into public transportation.
• Eliminating the tax grab on new housing. She argues that every new tax levied by the government on homes and rental units are passed on to resident buyers and renters and cripple any effort to bring costs down to manageable levels.

 I think these kinds of creative incentives are exactly what we need from government to push the construction of more rental units. An exemption on tax for materials, for example, would be a good step in that direction. It's foolish to try and tax our way out of the housing crisis.

The new taxes introduced by the NPD in the last two years are, in my opinion, misguided efforts to bring down housing costs by scapegoating foreign buyers and punishing homeowners. You can’t tax your way to affordability – this has been proven over and over. Right now, taxes and fees account for up to 26% of the cost of an average house or unit. How can we justify that while doing so little to incentivize the development of purpose built rentals? The only way to fix housing is through increasing supply, and government has a big responsibility to facilitate that process.

We commend McMullin and the UDI for their continued efforts to keep the affordability argument focused on supply.