Seven ways to fix Canada's housing shortage
TORONTO, April 8, 2024 /CNW/ - There's no issue that
captures the attention of Canadians quite like housing these days.
The challenges are well documented, and the pocketbook pain is
being felt by more and more of us. The solutions? They can't come
fast enough.
Today, RBC Economics and Thought Leadership released
The Great Rebuild: Seven ways to fix Canada's housing shortage. The report
looks at the factors that led to Canada's housing crisis and advances policy
ideas to address it.
More than half - one million - of 1.9 million new households by
2030 will not be able to buy a home if affordability remains close
to where it is today, according to RBC's research. Worst, more than
40% of the new households that can't buy a home will also not earn
enough to afford rent at the market price.
"The current affordability crisis has been driven by a massive
undersupply of housing in the face of booming demand," said
Robert Hogue, assistant chief
economist, RBC Economics.
"Canada needs to significantly
grow its housing stock, especially rental and affordable housing,
and it needs to do so quickly. Addressing this challenge will
require greater collaboration between governments, industry and
other stakeholders."
There is no single solution, but these seven actions offer the
best path forward to bringing meaningful home price and rent
relief:
- Aggressively expand the construction sector's labour
pool by prioritizing immigrant skills, recognizing credentials
from other jurisdictions and setting ambitious targets for trade
enrollments.
- Develop and adopt innovative designs, building techniques
and technology to boost productivity through prefabricated
housing and pre-approved building designs.
- Speed up housing project approvals by reducing
regulatory requirements, harmonizing building codes and
prioritizing projects with faster turnaround times.
- Ease zoning restrictions to allow more density in cities
and diversify the types of houses built to make more productive use
of land.
- Lower the cost of building new housing by using more
cost-efficient materials and modulating government charges.
- Change the housing supply mix with incentives to build
purpose-built apartments by waiving development charges and using
publicly owned land.
- Expand the housing stock from within by reclaiming units
from short-term rental businesses, making it easier to build
secondary suites and convert non-residential buildings.
"We're working with Canadians across the country — homeowners,
builders, policymakers — to help ensure home ownership remains part
of the Canadian dream. Efforts will have to go beyond what's been
done so far, and we hope these pragmatic ideas help rebalance
supply and demand and do so in ways that continue to drive Canadian
prosperity," said John Stackhouse,
SVP, Office of the CEO, RBC. Read the full report here.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with
a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading
performance. Our success comes from the 94,000+ employees who
leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision,
values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and
communities prosper. As Canada's
biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market
capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus
on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our more
than 17 million clients in Canada,
the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.
We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives
through donations, community investments and employee volunteer
activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.
SOURCE RBC