The federal government is removing the GST on all new apartment constructions in an effort to ease the financial burden on builders amid high interest rates.
I don’t know how I feel about these incentives. I feel like we should stop going through the market in solving this. Great amounts of money sink into it and don’t come out elsewhere in the economy. I feel like some level of government itself should begin building rentals, perhaps hiring construction firms to do the actual builds. Make basic, robust designs and reuse them, driving the costs down. Get fast tracked approvals to build these everywhere in the large metropolitan areas. Offer rents at cost. I can’t help but feel that if we keep going through the market, we’re gonna keep getting “luxury” buildings that attempt to command higher rents to maximize profit. And then we end up paying this profit via the incentives we provide and the rents we pay. This feels terribly inefficient.
I don’t know how I feel about these incentives. I feel like we should stop going through the market in solving this. Great amounts of money sink into it and don’t come out elsewhere in the economy. I feel like some level of government itself should begin building rentals, perhaps hiring construction firms to do the actual builds. Make basic, robust designs and reuse them, driving the costs down. Get fast tracked approvals to build these everywhere in the large metropolitan areas. Offer rents at cost. I can’t help but feel that if we keep going through the market, we’re gonna keep getting “luxury” buildings that attempt to command higher rents to maximize profit. And then we end up paying this profit via the incentives we provide and the rents we pay. This feels terribly inefficient.