Canadian Home Builders' Association Welcomes Housing-Focused Budget

APRIL 16, 2024 – OTTAWA, ON – The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) welcomes the 2024 Federal Budget with its focus on housing and emphasis on increasing housing supply and affordability as well as removing barriers to first-time buyers trying to get into the market.

“CHBA and our members are very pleased to see the federal budget measures that will help the sector respond to the government's goal of doubling housing starts to overcome the housing supply deficit,” stated CHBA CEO Kevin Lee. “CHBA has long called for policies to assist those who dream of homeownership but have found it out of reach. Today’s budget will go a long way to help unlock the door to homeownership.”

The biggest game-changer for the industry and for Canadians looking to buy their first home is the introduction of 30-year amortization periods for insured mortgages on new construction. The problem has been simple: if buyers cannot get a mortgage to buy a home, then builders cannot build, and housing supply suffers. Enabling first-time buyers to enter the market is critical for getting more supply built, as well as easing pressure on the rental market. This measure’s focus on new supply has been designed to help first-time buyers enter the market now without impacting prices in the existing housing market—an important detail.

Among many other positive measures in the budget is additional federal infrastructure and transit funding and financing – essential for new home construction – tied to housing outcomes, which CHBA has long called for. Conditions to support the broad adoption of more gentle density, actions to support public transit and development of nearby higher-density housing, and a three-year freeze on increasing development taxes are all important steps. Rising development taxes have been an under-recognized major driver of increasing housing costs in new construction, which have also resulted in much higher prices in resale homes, and action is desperately needed to reverse that trend.

Actions to support and incent the streamlining of approval processes at the municipal level through the Housing Accelerator Fund are welcome. And new details on the releasing of public lands for more housing supply are also a positive step, especially if red tape can be removed and the 250,000 housing unit target laid out for these lands can be met.

CHBA commends the government’s announced intention to develop an Industrial Strategy for Homebuilding. CHBA’s Sector Transition Strategy outlined how this can unfold and why this type of strategy is necessary to increase productivity and enable a fundamental shift in how most homes in the country are currently built. CHBA welcomes the first funding initiatives to support this, along with low-cost financing for factory-built homes. CHBA has additional recommendations in its own comprehensive Strategy to support and accelerate this transition, and looks forward to working with government on approaches to increase productivity to enable more homes to be built faster.

Given the labour shortage and need to almost double the number of workers in the industry to meet housing supply targets, CHBA applauds investments in promoting the skilled trades to high school students and facilitating labour market integration of new Canadians. CHBA will continue to engage with government on how to improve the immigration system to best bring workers to Canada that can help build homes.

There are a variety of other measures in the budget that are aimed at reducing the costs of construction, including financing measures. All measures to reduce costs are important, as those cost reductions, just as is the case with cost increases, are passed directly through to the consumer. In simple terms, higher construction costs, financing costs and taxes mean more expensive housing; lowering them means less expensive housing for both home buyers and renters.

To that end, CHBA cautions about potential measures that can increase the cost of housing, like already-planned building code changes that will certainly raise home prices. CHBA also cautions the proposed taxing of vacant land, which, while aimed at stimulating activity, must not increase the cost of land that is planned for development. CHBA will continue to engage with the government on these and other fronts to ensure the best outcomes for housing supply and affordability, including key government commitments to make changes to the National Building Code to build homes smarter, faster, and at prices Canadians can afford, rather than the opposite.

“The federal government has indicated with this budget that it intends to prioritize housing supply and affordability, including helping those Canadians who want to own a home fulfill that aspiration. CHBA and our members are eager to help make that happen,” concluded Lee.

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MEDIA INQUIRIES
Journalists wishing to interview Kevin Lee, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association are encouraged to submit their request by email to media@chba.ca.

ABOUT THE CANADIAN HOME BUILDERS’ ASSOCIATION
The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) is the voice of the residential construction industry in Canada, representing some 8,500 member firms across the country. Our membership spans new home builders, renovators, developers, trade contractors, building material manufacturers and suppliers, lenders, and other professionals in the housing sector.