I am deeply skeptical of our federal government getting into the real estate development business, and I think a lot of the industry shares this sentiment. However, there are aspects of Carney's housing platform that do make sense. Here's a recent article by Frances Bula in Storeys citing industry reactions:

Do not create a federal housing developer, empower the private sector to do its thing

Multi-Unit Residential Building (MURB) program (which previously existed from 1974 to 1981 and spurred a lot of new rental housing)

Capital gain deferral on funds immediately re-invested back into housing (something akin to the 1031 exchange in the US)

Remove the federal ban on foreign investors

Dramatically reduce / eliminate municipal development charges (though, there's the important question of how exactly this gets done)

Expand the no HST on new housing (Carney's current plan is to only eliminate it for new homebuyers and for new homes under $1 million)

Tax credits for investors in affordable housing (This is not currently proposed, but I like it too. The US has something called Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, which HUD calls their most important resource for creating new affordable housing.)

Create policies that will outlast the current government, and don't make them convoluted

There are, of course, many other things that need to be done to improve the delivery of new housing in this country, including a lot at the micro level. On this blog, we regularly talk about everything from single-stair buildings to streamlining environmental permissions.

If you have anything else you'd like to add, please leave a comment below. Let's keep the pressure on.

Cover photo by Charan S on Unsplash