Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyCanada must become a global superpower
The silver lining to the US starting a trade war with Canada and regularly threatening annexation is that it has forced this country out of complacency. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to remember a time, at least in my lifetime, when patriotism and nationalism has united so much of Canada. According to a recent survey by Angus Reid, the percentage of Canadians expressing a "deep emotional attachment" to the country jumped from 49% in December 2024 to 59% in February 2025. And as further evidence of...
Brandon DonnellyThe bank robbery capital of the world
Between 1985 and 1995, Los Angeles' retail bank branches were robbed some 17,106 times. In 1992, which was the the city's worst year for robberies, the number was 2,641. This roughly translated into about one bank robbery every 45 minutes of each banking day. All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World" during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facil...
Brandon DonnellyThe story behind those pixelated video game mosaics in Paris
If you've ever been to Paris, you've probably noticed the small pixelated art pieces that are scattered all around the city on buildings and various other hard surfaces. Or maybe you haven't seen or noticed them in Paris, but you've seen similarly pixelated mosaics in one of the other 79 cities around the world where they can be found. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about right now. Huh? Here's an example from Bolivia (click here if you can't see...
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Brandon DonnellyNo more sales tax on new rental housing
Support Brandon Donnelly
Brandon DonnellyNo more sales tax on new rental housing
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Big news today in development land. The federal government just announced that it has removed sales tax (GST/HST) from new rental housing effective immediately. This is a significant step in the right direction, and something that we have spoken about many times before on the blog.
Here's how things used to work:
In the case of a newly constructed or substantially renovated multiple-unit residential complex or addition to a multiple-unit residential complex, the builder must generally self-assess GST/HST on the fair market value of the whole of the substantially completed multiple-unit residential complex or addition when possession of the first unit is given under a lease, licence or similar arrangement as a place of residence of an individual.
What this is saying is that if you build new rental housing, and even if you plan to continue owning it forever, you need to determine the fair market value of the property and then pay HST on that amount. In Ontario, the HST rate is 13%. However, the effective rate was a bit lower because of new rental rebates. Let's say it was somewhere around 11%.
Now that this no longer needs to be paid, a lot of rental projects that were flirting at the margin should suddenly make economic sense. Which is why I tweeted earlier today that every housing developer in Canada is right now dusting off their "what if we built rental" development pro forma. It didn't work yesterday, but maybe it does today!
Today is a good day for new rental housing supply in Canada.
Update: This announcement only relates to the federal portion of the HST. The feds are now calling on provinces to follow suit.
Big news today in development land. The federal government just announced that it has removed sales tax (GST/HST) from new rental housing effective immediately. This is a significant step in the right direction, and something that we have spoken about many times before on the blog.
Here's how things used to work:
In the case of a newly constructed or substantially renovated multiple-unit residential complex or addition to a multiple-unit residential complex, the builder must generally self-assess GST/HST on the fair market value of the whole of the substantially completed multiple-unit residential complex or addition when possession of the first unit is given under a lease, licence or similar arrangement as a place of residence of an individual.
What this is saying is that if you build new rental housing, and even if you plan to continue owning it forever, you need to determine the fair market value of the property and then pay HST on that amount. In Ontario, the HST rate is 13%. However, the effective rate was a bit lower because of new rental rebates. Let's say it was somewhere around 11%.
Now that this no longer needs to be paid, a lot of rental projects that were flirting at the margin should suddenly make economic sense. Which is why I tweeted earlier today that every housing developer in Canada is right now dusting off their "what if we built rental" development pro forma. It didn't work yesterday, but maybe it does today!
Today is a good day for new rental housing supply in Canada.
Update: This announcement only relates to the federal portion of the HST. The feds are now calling on provinces to follow suit.
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