Brandon Donnelly

Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

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Transparent homeownership

Yesterday, I asked this on Twitter:

And then I learned that Victoria-based Aryze is already doing it:

I was a little surprised by some of the numbers here, namely municipal fees. But that is not the point here. The point is that this is a great idea and that, judging from the comments on Twitter, many people seem to want this.

The obvious benefit is that it allows consumers to better understand where their money is going. But I also think that by showing people all of the costs that get levied on new housing, it could benefit the overall development industry.

What do you think? Should developers in Toronto adopt a similar approach? Let me know in the comments below.

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3 responses to “Transparent homeownership”

  1. johnbarnott Avatar
    johnbarnott

    It’s a start but really just a pimple.
    The underlying problem is land; it is not (mostly) transportable, you can’t really own it. We tax land because that is all that settlers could be measured by! If land were owned by the state and we merely leased it, we would de-couple land from inflation. That would change the balance sheet remarkably, and improve income inequality simultaneously!

    Reply
  2. AM Avatar
    AM

    @John: and create shortages because the prices wouldn’t reflect the value people place on the land. It’s well-documented that in places where the property rights aren’t well protected and/or enforced, there is less economic development owing to the uncertainty of investment in properties.

    If the state owned all the land and leased it to us, it would create a system ripe for abuse and corruption and land would become even more scarce.

    Socialism has been tried many, many times and it always fails, because it doesn’t take into account human nature. Utopia is condemned to remain an unattainable goal.

    I fully support the idea of transparent pricing. That way people know what they’re paying for and can rebel against local government once they realize how much cities make from real estate deals and how little we have to show for it.

    Reply
  3. Bruce Atyeo Avatar
    Bruce Atyeo

    As long as house prices continue to escalate, developers are in no hurry to build more housing inventory. They already own most or all of the developable land so the higher prices go the more money they make without putting a shovel in the ground. Switching to state owned land might work but I can’t imagine the fiasco that would be created by trying to switch over.

    Reply

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