Steps to Improve Housing Affordability
Housing is easily the most common reasons for people to contact my office. There are many constituents in this riding who rent and have had to face ris-ing rents and low vacancies. Homeowners are also feeling rising costs and many are unable to get into the market. Our government has taken a num-ber of measures on both the demand and supply sides of housing:
- A new speculation tax on certain under-occupied homes
- Expanding and increased the foreign buyers tax to 20%
- Closing tax loopholes and cracking down on fraud
- Over $6 billion will be invested over 10 years to build affordable housing units and $7 billion investment in affordable housing for middle-income earners
- Increasing rental assistance to help low-income families and seniors
- Strengthening laws to protect renters
- Giving local governments the authority to limit tenure to rental through the use of a new rental zoning tool
- Requiring developers to collect and report information on pre-sale condo assignments to ensure people are paying the appropriate taxes
There is still a great deal of work to be done, but our government is working towards building a more affordable BC for all British Columbians.
Read about more news and events in the attached PDF of the newsletter.
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