Cost of housing in Canada

[IKnowNothing]

Please say what the solution would be? I am genuinely curious as to what steps are available to him? I can buy a detached home outside of Toronto for 350,000 what possible action can the premier initiate that will reduce prices in the GTA whilst not destroying the housing market elsewhere considering the price of construction is over 150 a sq. ft. without tarriffs.

Fits better in this thread.

Solution: stop trying to fight mathematical reality and bow to efficiency.

You identified the crux of the issue. The suburban property tax base doesn't generate revenue to support their ongoing service cost and upkeep AND/OR bank enough to be prepared for EOL infrastructure replacement. The existing suburban housing inventory is financially reliant on the development fees of new builds to stay afloat. So development fees are exorbitant, doing double and triple duty. To keep the cycle going municipalities need to spend twice- replacing existing low density infrastructure AND expanding with more slightly higher low density. It's an impossible circle to square- the money has to come from some where.

So Infill and densification. Not a free for all of garden suites and basement apartments without properly accounting for increased service demand. End exclusionary zoning, scale up infrastructure replacement projects to be able to take on more residential capacity on the same footprint rather than being 1 for 1, and provide tax incentives/ development fee rebates to hit targeted densification ratios.

Take 5% of the land area in GTA SDH exclusionary zone suburb and 4-8x the density with a combination of well planned * town homes and lowrise apartments and you end up with 115-135% of the original carrying capacity.

* Still following setbacks and lot coverage ratios, having proper parking.

Nimby voters won't like it- but who else are they going to vote for provincially? Especially considering it's not a policy that either of the NDP or LPO can oppose on ideological grounds.

The majority of whole unique towns with their various residential densities, commercial use, industrial use etc. could be picked up and dropped into suburban neighbourhoods. Breaking up the sea won't end the world.