High housing prices have forced many Canadians to accept that they may never be able to afford buying their own home. But what if they can't afford to rent one?
OTTAWA — High housing prices have forced many Canadians to accept that they may never be able to afford buying their own home.Strong demand for rentals and a shortage of homes are both contributing to soaring rental costs. And that's making it even more difficult for people to save money for down payment on a home.
And experts are urging the federal government to leverage all the tools they have — from tax measures and financing help — to make that happen. An RBC report published at the end of last year found the population of renters increased at a rate three times faster than that of homeowners between 2011 and 2021.
"We have concerns that the higher interest rates will lead to a fairly uniform decline in new construction of rentals," said Aled ab Iorwerth, deputy chief economist at the CMHC. Haider said building more purpose-built rentals is important because the rent charged to occupants tends to be lower, and they offer more stability to renters who might otherwise have to turn to more expensive options, such as condominiums.
One of its 10 recommendations is for the federal government to waive GST and HST for purpose-built rental housing projects. But while there are rumblings that the federal government plans to create new measures over the next year to address the housing shortage, ministers have offered few details so far about how they would specifically address the need for purpose-built rentals.
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