Ottawa, ON: Today, the Consumer Choice Center released a report on the state of housing in Canada, and the results are alarming. According to the report, it takes an individual in Vancouver almost 45 years to save up for a downpayment on a home, and an individual in Toronto would have to save for 44 years to be able to buy a home. The report is based on the amount one would need to save to be able to afford a down payment and have a reasonable mortgage that they can actually pay each month.
Sabine Benoit, Canadian Policy Associate at the Consumer Choice Center, responded to these findings.
“The fact that someone in Canada on an average salary has to save for more than forty years to buy a house shows the absolutely disastrous state of housing in this country. It’s time to move on from blaming the usual scapegoats and focus on what the government has been doing wrong, or has been ignoring, for decades, that has landed us all in this position,” said Benoit.
In the report, the Consumer Choice Center also makes policy recommendations based on these findings that include badly needed taxation and zoning reforms that governments can implement immediately.
David Clement, the CCC’s North American Affairs Manager, added: “Canadian’s are tired of failed policies and aimless new bureaucracies, like Build Canada Homes, being proposed by all levels of government. The reality of this study is that if there is no change to taxation and zoning policies now, and no real increase in the housing stock, the number of years it takes to afford a home will continue to climb, putting it even more out of reach for homebuyers in this country.”
