No More Empty Homes

Look, we can't just build endless amounts of condos and suburbs. That's a plan to nowhere.

For starters, that just creates new 'investment opportunities' for off-shore investors.

Sure, our real estate is amongst the most valuable in the world, but what good is that to us if all the value is in foreign pockets - and what good does that do us when first-time Canadian buyers can't get into that real estate?

The Big Idea: Build...but build with and for the right people.

We are going to build, though...and here's a real chance to give hope to the homeless and those who can't afford life with one job; retraining the underpaid & overworked to become the army of homebuilders we so critically need.

Along the way, in addition to good wages, I would contribute to their futures by providing income-geared loans, scaled to your income; the more you earn, the more you start to pay back, but starter homes for everyone earning under a certain threshold would be interest-free and tax-free and a condition of banks continuing to be licensed as mortgage providers. If they won't participate, then they don't get access to the rest of the market.

That last one will meet with a lot of resistance from political parties, all of whom want to protect banks' profits. When you hear resistance to an idea that is kind to people, you're getting reinforcement as to why voting independant is the only way to ensure you get a candidate that's not beholden to bigger interests than yours.

The Rental Market

We don't have enough rentals, which drives the prices higher.

We need to start by building thousands more rental units, managed by the cities they're constructed in; those are the only places where limited rent controls should be tried.

Construction companies need to be motivated away from the one-time profits of selling condos and into longer-term investments into rental buildings; allowing those companies to build and then reasonably profit from rentals to working folks is sustainable for renters and the employees of those companies.

Working With Ottawa

Ontario needs our partners in Ottawa to step up and tighten the rules on foreign home ownership in a big way. If people want to talk tariffs, here's where to start; the current federal government believes that simply "banning" foreign ownership works. Spoiler alert: it doesn't. Foreign buyers simply create Canadian "landing spots" like corporations then have those landing spots' lawyers buy. Hands up, everyone who's surprised that our current government is good at making lawyers rich.

The only solution is to make it so bloody expensive that it's no longer an attractive investment. The market will do the rest, returning these properties to Canadians to buy - and the prices will tumble, too.

It's also time to start limiting the number of short-term vacation rentals. Zero out any taxation benefits from those.

Oh, and while we're at it, if Ottawa is so enamoured of banning things, let's start by making it illegal for corporations and investment funds from buying residential properties. Zero out their tax claims for renovations and other expenses, too; they don't need those. (I'd give those constructing new homes a break to help get construction prices back down.) Right now, the Liberal Party is fixated on 'allowing' homeowners to do things like 'allowing' us to contribute - loan the government - $8,000 per year tax free. Bad mindset.

We need to simplify thinking; just make first-time home buying not only tax but interest free.