The Government of Ontario is currently working on a Housing Supply Action Plan that they hope will address “the barriers getting in the way of new ownership and rental housing.” Through initial consultations, they have already identified 5 key themes (my words below): The approvals/entitlement process… Read More
Joe Cortright of City Observatory recently looked at “the myth of revealed preference for [the] suburbs.” In it, he cites the work of Jonathan Levine, who is the author of a 2006 book called, Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land-Use. There’s… Read More
There’s a debate among urbanists as to the full impact of housing supply on overall affordability. But it should make intuitive sense that as new people move to a city and as new jobs are created, there will be a need for additional housing. Here… Read More
Joe Cortright recently wrote about a study by Kate Pennington (UC Berkeley), which looked at the impact of housing production on legal eviction in San Francisco. The goal was to figure out if new housing supply actually causes displacement. To do this, Pennington went block-by-block… Read More
The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an article called, “SF residential projects languish as rising costs force developers to cash out.” It talks about the impact that rising costs (both construction and other) are having on new housing supply. Some developers aren’t building even though may… Read More
There are a number of affordable housing plans being thrown around in Toronto right now given that we have a municipal election coming up this fall. From what I have read, the plans are largely centered around surplus and/or available public land and possibly some… Read More
I was reading Aaron Renn’s post this morning on America’s vacant housing challenge and I was reminded of the stark contrast between what we are experiencing here in Toronto and what the US is experiencing in a lot of its coastal cities, compared to what… Read More
A few days ago it was announced that Blackstone has entered the multi-family space in Canada through a JV with Starlight Investments. They are buying 6 undisclosed multi-family buildings. 5 in Toronto. And 1 in Montréal. The total is 746 units. The message in the… Read More
The Seattle Times has an article up about “widespread single-family zoning” that will feel familiar to many here in Toronto who, I know, are having similar conversations about the amount of land dedicated to low-density housing. The article, by Mike Rosenberg, estimates that 49% of all… Read More
Some of you might remember that last summer the city refused my laneway house/suite here in Toronto. Well that was last summer and this is this summer. On May 2, 2018 – which just so happens to be my birthday – Toronto and East York Community… Read More
