Built to last : Conçu pour durer : renforcer les assises du système canadien du logement

BUILT TO LAST: STRENGTHENING THE FOUNDATIONS OF HOUSING IN CANADA fcm.ca Prepared for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Steve Pomeroy, Focus Consulting Inc., Ottawa Research Associate, Carleton University Centre for Urban Research and Education (CURE) May 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 ANAlySIS 3 Cracks in the foundation 3 The rising cost of homeownership 5 The strain on Canada’s re [...] As a to partner with our provincial and federal counter- result of the federal government’s accelerating exit parts and work toward a housing system that is from the social housing sector, one third of Canada’s built to last. [...] Availability of housing translates into the economic In recent years, studies of Canada’s housing sector and social benefits of being able to support labour have explored various aspects of the housing system mobility and student populations, increase affordable in isolation. [...] Many leading economists, as well as the Bank of Canada, continue 62% to identify imbalance in the housing sector as the Total number one domestic risk to the economy.1 60% A healthy housing system is essential to community 58% and economic growth. [...] The extension of the The strain on Canada’s maximum amortization period to 40 years in 2006 in- rental market creased the potential mortgage an average Canadian household could get, at a time when the economy’s uxtaposed against the ownership gains of the fundamentals were already positive and house prices past decade, construction of purpose-built rental were already increasing — at double-digit