Opinion: To fix the housing crisis, overhaul city taxes to incentivize building affordable units
www.theglobeandmail.com
A higher tax should be charged to real estate developers for over-sized and high-end luxury homes and a lower dollar amount for entry-level homes

[some company built] two-bedroom and three-bedroom stacked townhouse units in Toronto, selling for $500,000 on average. The city charged our project the full development charges of $30,000 per unit. At the same time, companies behind luxury condos in the city selling for $1.5-million were also paying $30,000 per unit.

Interesting idea. It doesn’t sound like a silver bullet for the housing crisis, but it would be a step in the right direction.

  • abogical@lemmy.one
    2·
    2 years ago

    Land value tax would solve this. If the city doesn’t want oversized units, tax land.

    …and get rid of development charges altogether. Why are we punishing homebuilders with more taxes?

    • MacroCyclo
      2·
      2 years ago

      Good point, there is a cost for hooking up a new building, but if you build something the taxes on that land will go up and likely recoup the cost.