The sight of masked and socially distant prospective home buyers lining up around the block to view a reasonably priced condo may feel like a distant memory dating back to pandemic times.
It was a poignant image representing the state of housing in Canada’s big cities, where even homes needing some serious repairs were the subject of aggressive bidding wars, well above asking price.
And while those times may feel long gone, the words “housing” and “crisis” remain interlinked in Canada still today – as they have been for over a decade.
Take home prices in some of Canada’s biggest cities, for instance.
Last year in Toronto, the average price of a house was more than $1.2 million, with the monthly mortgage payment on an average home amounting to 79 per cent of the median monthly income, according to the Housing Affordability Monitor published by National Bank.
In Vancouver, the annual household income needed to afford a condo was over $177,000, while the median household after-tax income was just under $90,000.
RELATED: Tenants’ rights advocates call for action from federal parties on housing crisis
And according to a 2023 study released by Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), 3.5 million homes need to be built by 2030 to meet the needs of a growing population and economy.
All that has made housing and affordability key issues for Canadians during this election. Here’s a round up of how political parties have been responding to voters’ housing concerns.
Increasing housing supply
The Liberal platform promises to build half a million homes every year by investing $25 billion, including $10 billion towards homes for “students, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and Indigenous housing, shelters and more.”
In addition to funding and tax incentives, the Liberals want to “act as a developer” by creating a new agency called Build Canada Homes. There is also an emphasis on using technologies like prefabricated homes to build environmentally sustainable houses at scale, with the hopes the demand of building materials would stimulate other industries like manufacturing and forestry. The party also promises several measures to reduce approval timelines for new projects.
The Conservatives say they would build 2.3 million homes largely through a GST holiday on new home purchases under $1.3 million, as well as by lowering local taxes by compensating municipalities. The private sector would be allowed defer tax on capital gains for their investments in housing. The Conservatives believe these tax incentives will lower the cost of houses by $100,000 while bringing in billions of dollars in investment.
READ MORE: Poilievre vows not to impose a home equity tax
Another proposal by the Conservatives is to turn 15 per cent of federal buildings and lands into housing within the first 100 days if they form the next government. They also proposed simplifying the National Building Code.
The NDP hopes to double the pace of homebuilding by adding three million homes by 2030 through a $16 billion investment in a national housing strategy. This includes rewards for cities under the Canadian Homes Transfer for building apartments and townhomes to make up 20 per cent “non-market housing in every neighbourhood.” A part of this investment would also go toward the Communities First Fund to help provinces build public infrastructure like water and transit.
The parties envision a very different role for CMHC, the federal Crown corporation that provides mortgage liquidity and acts as an insurer. While the Conservatives characterize it as a bureaucratic body that’s slowing home building (Poilievre is promising to restrict CMHC), the NDP says it would use the agency to offer low-cost mortgages to Canadians. The Greens want CMHC to focus on constructing non-market housing and building a prefabricated housing plant to lower costs of construction, in addition to low-cost mortgages. The People’s Party of Canada would like to privatize or dismantle the agency, blaming it for fuelling the housing crisis.
RELATED: CMHC reports annual pace of housing starts slowed in March
The Green Party says it would create “the biggest public housing construction program since the 1970s” to build 1.2 million affordable non-market homes.
On its platform, the Bloc Québécois says it would demand all housing-related investments to be transferred to the Quebec government, calling housing a provincial jurisdiction. But it said it would work to increase non-market housing to 20 per cent, a promise also made by the NDP.
The Bloc also called for elimination of GST for first-time home buyers on new home purchases and other associated services like notary, building inspector fee, and more.
Reducing demand
All parties agree housing has been beyond the reach of many Canadians due to doubling of home prices in the past decade. However, when it comes to why the prices have risen so much, their explanations and solutions vary.
The NDP and the Green Party blame the big corporations for buying up properties and for increasing rents and renovictions.
“In cities like Vancouver and Toronto, investors own more than 30 per cent of all condos. Regular families who need homes can’t compete,” the Green Party platform reads.
Both parties are calling for a ban preventing corporations and other entities like private equity and real estate income trusts (REITs) from buying rental properties and social housing units. They also call for the elimination of tax benefits and public loan access to such corporate entities. The Greens also call for banning corporations from buying single-family homes.
In 2022, the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau banned foreign nationals from buying residential properties, but it only applied to individuals and not corporations. The ban is set to expire in 2027.
RELATED: B.C. real estate experts say easing foreign-buyer rules could help supply
The Bloc Québécois is calling for curbing real estate flipping by increasing the minimum ownership time of housing to two years before an investor can benefit from capital gains exemptions on profits from house sales.
In contrast to those different restrictions on private corporations, the Liberals and the Conservatives hope their measures would spur billions of dollars of private investment in housing.
It should also be noted that Liberal Leader Mark Carney came under attacks during the debate for his role as the chairman of Brookfield Asset Management before his entry into politics. Its parent company, Brookfield Corporation, has over $1 trillion in real estate and energy infrastructure assets. One of its subsidiaries was one of Canada’s largest residential property owners, with over 30,000 homes in 2024.
The PPC blames “mass immigration” under Liberal governments led by Trudeau for the increase in home prices and called for a moratorium on new permanent residents admitted “for as many years as necessary until the housing crisis has cooled down.” It also said it would “work with provinces to curb speculation and money laundering by foreign non-resident buyers” in real estate.
Carney says his government would keep the lower immigration targets set by the Liberals last year, adding “we need to build our capacity.”
Relief for renters
The New Democrats promise to build 100,000 rent-controlled units on current federal lands by 2035 and fund affordable housing projects by non-profit developers, cooperatives and Indigenous communities. The platform outlines it will link local governments’ access to the federal Communities First Fund to implementing rent control and tenant protection measures it dubbed “Renter’s Bill of Rights.”
The Bloc says it will demand federal financing for Québec’s initiatives to build student housing to cool the rental and residential housing demands.
The Conservatives have criticized the Liberal government over a rental increase for military personnel in April 2024. They promised to cancel the rent hike and to build 6,000 units in military bases.
Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives made explicit promises regarding tenant rights and relief measures for renters.
Indigenous housing
The Green Party called for transfer of federal lands to Indigenous-housing organizations in line with self-determination principles.
The NDP’s platform said it would finance housing projects led by Indigenous communities through with a Community Housing Bank.
The Liberal Party would provide $10 billion in low-cost financing for builders of affordable housing projects targeting Indigenous communities, among others.
Preventing and solving homelessness
In 2019, the federal government set a target of reducing homelessness by 50 per cent by 2027 through its Reaching Home project. The parliamentary budget office estimated in 2024 that an additional $3.5 billion funding would be needed to hit that target.
The Bloc says it will demand unconditional funding for a Quebec strategy in dealing with homelessness.
The Conservative platform says it will “end tent cities” by criminalizing setting up of temporary structures and by giving the police powers to dismantle encampments. It also said it would follow a “housing first” approach to end homelessness without providing any details.
Jagmeet Singh’s NDP would create a program to help 50,000 people in critical need of housing and boost existing community-based programs to help people experiencing with chronic homelessness.
The Greens also called for increased investments for youth shelters and transitional housing to support youth at risk of homelessness.
The NDP promise to double the Canada Disability Benefit, and the Greens say they would strengthen it.
The Greens also promise to introduce a Guaranteed Livable Income program, whereas the Liberals and the NDP say they would increase the existing Guaranteed Income Supplement, which provides financial assistance to low-income pensioners.
The Liberals say they would work with provinces and territories to set homeless reduction targets and support community-level efforts to end encampments, even though the Liberal government had set a goal of halving homelessness back in 2019.
