Tax Credits & Low Finance Rates as Incentives?  

 Provincial & Federal Governments give film producers tax credits as incentives to shoot shows here. Ontario offers three!
How about housing? 

Tax Credit Proof: Kelowna incentivized thousands of new rental homes built and lowered rents thanks to a ten-year property tax exemption.

In a bid to boost housing starts, the Ontario government is removing the eight per cent provincial portion of the HST for first-time buyers of new homes up to $1 million, reports the Toronto Star.
 

First-time homebuyers could save up to $80,000.
 

"The City of Victoria is considering waiving millions in building-permit fees for builders and developers to help bring down the costs of home building.

The proposal for a 12-month “fee holiday” comes from Mayor Marianne Alto, who said it’s important to keep the momentum of new residential developments going so the cost of housing can come down in Victoria."

Senior governments should consistently help fund new infrastructure like water, sewer, schools, parks, transit & more, given they control immigration increases for every province but Quebec). These infrastructure costs should not just be borne by new home buyers or renters.

Instead our federal government sends billions of tax dollars overseas for gender studies with poor outcomes and questionable progress assessments. For example, "Gender -just rice in Vietnam" ? 

Working collaboratively with local governments helped builders create "rent to own" housing solutions under Canada's then low interest rates. 

Still awaiting Senate approval is June 5th federal legislation that waives the five-per-cent federal GST on new homes under $1 million for first-time buyers and provides partial rebates for those between $1 and $1.5 million, says NewsCaf.
 

Canada’s construction industry accounts for about 7.5 per cent of the national GDP and generates around $162 billion annually. The residential building share of construction generally accounts for a third of total industry GDP, or $54 billion.

We need to lower the costs of building so builders can get shovels in the ground. Presently, taxes account for roughly 36 per cent of the cost of a new home. Taxes, fees and levies must be reduced.

Reduce interest rates significantly for both new home builders with a lower rate for those needing first mortgages to help them onto the housing ladder. 

Exempt all new homes from GST on the first $1.5 million value, a critical step for families seeking higher cost, multi-bedroom townhomes or apartments. The current federal exemption is only on the first million. Provinces like BC could exempt first-time buyers from their Property Transfer Tax (PTT).

The city offered a 10-year property tax break in exchange for affordable housing secured as rentals for 60 years. 

From its June 2024 adoption, only five applications were received. "Four of those applications, representing 304 housing units, were for non-market housing, while only one two-unit project came through the market-housing stream."

Council voted to reduce barriers to new affordable rental projects noted by homebuilders.

"The amount of time median-income units must be secured as rentals has been reduced to 20 years from 60, while co-op housing will now be eligible."