Brandon Donnelly

Here is a recent chart from Mike Moffat showing how much development charges have increased in the City of Toronto from 2009 to today:

We’ve, of course, seen this before. Back in 2020, I shared an article that developer Urban Capital published where they did a cost comparison between a project they had done in 2005 and a project they were doing in 2020. What they uncovered was that development charges alone had increased by 3,244%! The most of any line item in their pro forma.

Development charges over the last real estate cycle have been an insidious problem. Meaning, the industry knew they were crazy high, and we were all trying to be vocal about it, but let’s face it — the general public doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for developers complaining about high fees. They are also largely hidden from purchasers and renters. The charges just get lumped in.

If our industry could figure out how to be more transparent and separate out these charges, much like a sales tax, I think it would go a long way to showing consumers what they’re actually paying when it comes to new housing. And then maybe something positive would happen. Because this is a major reason why new housing has gotten so expensive in this region.

Can you imagine if property taxes had increased by 3,244% over the last 15 years? I can’t. Because no one would have ever allowed that to happen.

For better and for worse, the current market is going to serve as a rude awakening for municipalities. We’ve reached the breaking point. The housing market is, as we’ve talked about, in a “state of economic lockdown.” And when people don’t buy new homes, it means developers no longer have the money to pay development charges.