With skyrocketing housing prices, Mayor Cam Guthrie hopes to see tangible actions flow from a pair of upcoming housing summits – one organized by the province and another set at the federal level, though ideally he’d like to see them combined.
“It’s a big, big issue. … All three of us have a role to play,” he said. “I’m glad to see the upper levels of government are starting to take this crisis seriously, because it is a crisis.”
The summits, set for next month, are intended to spur discussion about what the various levels of government can do and how they can collaborate to address the shortage of affordable housing.
Guthrie wants to hear more than talk, he’s looking for concrete actions that can be taken. That may include things such as tax incentives, shortening the timeline of approval processes and more.
A recent report from the Canadian Real Estate Association shows the average price of homes sold in Guelph last month reached a record $995,536, which is up 28.8 per cent from November of 2020.
Much the same situation exists across the country, with a record 25.3 per cent increase in year-over-year home sale values.
“Home sales have been getting consistently stronger since taking a small breather at the end of the summer," said Sabrina Essery, president of the Guelph and District Association of Realtors, in an online post. "New listings are average at best, which is nowhere near the pace of sales activity, and as a result overall supply levels are still trending at historical lows.”
Guthrie was set to participate in an Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) summit on housing last week, but it was called off in the face of rising COVID-19 case counts.
He’s looking forward to the upcoming summits, being held virtually, in hopes of finding ways to bring down the market value of homes to make them more affordable.
As a member of the OBCM working group on affordable housing, Guthrie believes there are gaps at all levels of government that have contributed to the situation.
“There are problems in the entire continuum and I don’t think it’s right to only be focusing on one issue and to be ignoring the others,” he said, noting that continuum includes everything from supportive housing to rentals and ownership. “People are in different places in that continuum and if you want to help all people, then we have to discuss every single lever and tool that we can use for all those different types of housing units.”
It’s not just about government either, the mayor notes.
“At the end of the day, especially when we’re talking about market rental or market ownership, whatever lever or tool we can use to help with the situation, what guarantee do we have that it translates into lower housing prices?” he said.
He called for developers, realtors, non-profit housing providers and more to get involved – something he said is starting to happen within their various associations.
“Just finger-pointing, without offering solutions, isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Guthrie said. “If it does not translate into a lesser price, then we’re not helping the end user. The end user is who I’m focused on.”
