Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan introduces a comprehensive package of measures to help more people find affordable homes, increase supply, protect buyers and renters, and bring stability to the real estate market. The plan includes:
Actions to Address Demand for Housing:
1) Introducing legislation that would, if passed, implement a new 15 percent Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) on the price of homes in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) purchased by individuals who are not citizens or permanent residents of Canada, or by foreign corporations.
Actions to Protect Renters:
2) Expanding rent control to all private rental units in Ontario, including those built after 1991. This will ensure increases in rental costs can only rise at the rate posted in the annual provincial rent increase guideline.
3) The government will introduce legislation that would, if passed, strengthen the Residential Tenancies Act to further protect tenants and ensure predictability for landlords, including: developing a standard lease with explanatory information available in multiple languages, tightening provisions for “landlord’s own use” evictions, and ensuring that tenants are adequately compensated if asked to vacate under this rule; prohibiting above-guideline increases where elevator work orders have not been completed.
Actions to Increase Housing Supply:
4) Establishing a program to leverage the value of surplus provincial land assets across the province to develop a mix of market housing and new, permanent, sustainable and affordable housing supply.
5) Introducing legislation that would, if passed, empower the City of Toronto, and potentially other interested municipalities, to introduce a vacant homes property tax to encourage property owners to sell unoccupied units or rent them out, to address concerns about residential units potentially being left vacant by speculators.
6) Ensuring that property tax for new multi-residential apartment buildings is charged at a similar rate as other residential properties. This will encourage developers to build more new purpose-built rental housing and will apply to the entire province.
7) Introducing a targeted $125-million, five year program to further encourage the construction of new rental apartment buildings by rebating a portion of development charges.
8) Providing municipalities with the flexibility to use property tax tools to help unlock development opportunities. For example, municipalities could be permitted to impose a higher tax on vacant land that has been approved for new housing.
9) Creating a new Housing Supply Team with dedicated provincial employees to identify barriers to specific housing development projects and work with developers and municipalities to find solutions.
Other Actions to Protect Homebuyers and Increase Information Sharing:
10) The province will work to understand and tackle practices that may be contributing to excessive speculation in the housing market such as “paper flipping,” a practice that includes entering into a contractual agreement to buy a residential unit and assigning it to another person prior to closing.
11) Working with the real estate profession and consumers, the province is committing to review the rules real estate agents are required to follow to ensure that consumers are fairly represented in real estate transactions.
12) Establishing a housing advisory group which will meet quarterly to provide the government with ongoing advice about the state of the housing market and discuss the impact of the measures in the Fair Housing
Plan and any additional steps that are needed.
13) Educating consumers on their rights, particularly on the issue of one real estate professional representing more than one party in a real estate transaction.
14) Partnering with the Canada Revenue Agency to explore more comprehensive reporting requirements so that correct federal and provincial taxes, including income and sales taxes, are paid on purchases and sales of real estate in Ontario.
15) Making elevators in Ontario buildings more reliable by establishing timelines for elevator repair.
16) Working with municipalities to better reflect the needs of a growing Greater Golden Horseshoe through an updated Growth Plan.
If you have any questions regarding the above changes or wish to discuss any of your real estate needs, please feel free to contact me.
Aneta Malinski
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