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Community mailboxes or super mailboxes have long been present in suburban communities with only about one-third of Canadians or five millions addresses still getting home delivery.

Denis Lemelin, national president of CUPW, said the union is fighting the plan because it means 6,000 to 8,000 jobs but also because it is destroying an important service to the public.

Mr. Lemelin said much of the plan has yet to be thought out by Canada Post, including the impact on home values. Also unclear is where the community mailboxes will go in densely populated urban areas.

The report commissioned by CUPW says an appraiser looking at a home with a community mailbox would make an adjustment comparable to a home adjacent to a rail or hydro corridor.

“Community mailboxes have been part of the landscape since the 1980s and there hasn’t been an impact on value,” said Jon Hamilton, a spokesperson of Canada Post.

But Keith Lancastle, chief executive officer of the Appraisal Institute of Canada, said there’s no question if a community mailbox is in front of your house it will be marked down as factor affecting price on most appraisals.

However, Mr. Lancastle said in a hot market where you have a brand new renovated house in high demand, the impact on your final selling price would be negligible. “[Some markets], you put a sign up today and by Thursday it is sold. It’s that hot,” he says.

He adds the impact can also be in the eye of a purchaser. Someone with a disability might want to be close to a community mailbox because they don’t want to have to walk far to get their mail. “They might consider paying a premium,” says Mr. Lancastle.

David Batori, a long-term broker with Re/Max Hallmark who sells a lot of property in fairly dense pockets of midtown Toronto, says he’d fight any attempt to put a mailbox in front of his house.

“You’ve got traffic issues. I want to be four or five houses away from one of these things for it not to have an impact [on price],” says the realtor. “I’d fight one of these things tooth and nail.”

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