Former real estate broker and mortgage broker here. If it’s helpful for anyone, here’s my breakdown reference for each party’s plans to address sky-high housing costs. Something in here for everyone to love/hate!

Lib:

-Doesn’t even get a tab on their platform page.

-First-Time Home Buyer Incentives are nice, but they, unfortunately, increase house prices and demand

-The residential rental property rebate will simply bring more speculators/investors into the market to compete with real homebuyers. (There’s generally too much focus in this plan that helps landlords instead of homeowners.

-I like the absentee foreign owners' tax idea, but it’s not nearly high enough to dent prices. 1% is tokenism at best.

-pledge to build 100,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years won’t cover demand, and why is the fed govt in the building industry?

-iPolitics: Unclear if feds’ $55B housing strategy will lower affordable housing need.

Con:

-money laundering inquest is good, but will meaningful change come of it?

-Mr. Scheer’s plan to “fix” the stress test will pile more debt on Canadians and increase house prices

-Increasing amortization lengths slightly decreases a monthly payment in the short term but virtually guaranteeing house prices rise higher. (It’s basic math: Would a banker rather loan you $500,000 with 10% down for 25 years, or change conditions so he can loan you $600,000 with 5% down for 30 years? We must always ask “Who profits?” and Mr. Scheer’s plan suggests he met with middle-aged bankers, not millennial buyers, when crafting his plan.)

NDP:

-30-year mortgages for first-time buyers and give low-interest loans to retrofit houses will increase prices

-15 percent tax on foreign buyers is much more aggressive than the Liberal counterpart (1% for absentees)

-money laundering inquest is good, but will meaningful change come of it?

-spend $5 billion to create 500,000 affordable housing units over 10 years would be good for supply, but why is the federal government in the building business anyway? Not only is the stock of social housing quality is generally quite low in Canada, but it’s very unfair to take simply lift from taxpayers so others can get cheaper housing. There are far fairer ways to achieve this outcome.

Green:

-will appoint a minister of housing to oversee the National Housing Strategy.

-build 25,000 new affordable units and renovate 15,000 others every year for the next 10 years has the same problem as the NDP (it’s wrong to steal, and there are easier ways to create affordability and incentivize development)

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So basically, no one is addressing the core fundamental reasons why Canada’s housing market is so unaffordable. Very little’s being said about speculation, debt, incentivizing development, overinvestment, banking, income, crown land, brownfields, or eliminating Stephen Harper’s Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program, which “currently allows foreign investors to purchase Canadian properties and can drive housing prices up for Canadian families beyond their reach” Real estate is our average citizen’s biggest expense… bandaids and tokenism are no longer unacceptable.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges once said that, in America, it was impossible to vote against the interest of Goldman Sachs. It appears that, in this election cycle, it’s impossible to vote against the interests of each party’s corporate backers.

I’d love to see our leaders cut through the smoke and mirrors and put some real meat on the table by enacting a national Fair Housing Plan. In this article, I’ve outlined ten very concrete initiatives that would materially bring more sustainable affordability to the Canadian housing markets for the long term. I hope whoever is elected on Monday will get serious about serving the people of Canada with someone so fundamental to a meaningful and prosperous life.

Further reading

Maclean’s: A ‘dumb’ idea to make housing more affordable

Global News: Parties are promising to tackle Canada’s housing crisis. Will their policies work?

Financial Post: Election pledges risk re-igniting Canadian home prices, realtors warn

The #1 Election Issue That the Candidates are Ignoring: Fixing Our Affordable Real Estate Crisis.