1) Trudeau announces $600 million in loans, funding to jump-start homebuilding, rentals

Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Alessia Passafiume

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks to media during an affordable housing press conference at a public housing development in Winnipeg, Thursday, April 4, 2024. / THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods JOHN WOODS

Updated April 5, 2024 @ 4:58pm

The federal Liberal government plans a $600-million package of loans and funding to help make it easier and cheaper to build homes for owners and renters.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Calgary, just the latest in a string of pre-budget announcements aimed at winning over younger voters.

“Younger generations, like millennials and gen-Z, feel like they’re falling behind because housing costs are just too high,”Trudeau said.

“That’s not OK — and it needs to change.”

Trudeau said $50 million would go toward a homebuilding technology and innovation fund, with another $50 million to modernize and expedite construction.

An additional $500 million worth of low-cost loans will foster projects with “innovative” construction techniques from prefabricated and modular housing manufacturers and other builders.

Housing Minister Sean Fraser said Canada is living through a housing crisis, but it doesn’t have to be like that going forward.

“But it’s going to demand that we do things in different ways,” he said, adding more announcements would be made in coming weeks.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will table the next federal budget April 16.

Trudeau’s string of cross-Canada news conferences, often with Freeland at his side, comes after months of often-intense political attacks from opposition parties who blame the housing crisis on Liberal inaction.

On Friday, he “announced a ‘new’ program on innovation when a similar program already exists and re-announced two other existing programs,” Conservative housing critic Scott Aitchison said in a statement.

“All of these are his existing policies that have contributed to the doubling of the cost of housing.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday she’s not interested in pursuing federal money with conditions attached “if it means hamstringing our ability to build the kind of housing that we need.”

Smith said she wants a model for Alberta’s federal-provincial partnership similar to the one with Quebec, billing it as a healthier relationship that allows both sides to decide together where federal funds are spent.

Federal NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan blamed a lack of housing stock on the failures of both the Liberal government and its Conservative predecessor to prioritize building affordable places to live. 

2) Ottawa to launch $1.5B fund designed to ensure rentals plentiful, affordable: Trudeau

Courtesy of Barrie360 and Canadian Press

By Nojoud Al Mallees

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greets contractors following a housing announcement in Dartmouth, N.S. on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Trudeau says a new $1.5-billion housing fund will help non-profit organizations acquire more rental units across Canada and make sure they remain affordable. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled a new $1.5-billion housing fund Thursday that he billed as helping non-profit organizations acquire more rental units across Canada and ensure they remain affordable. 

The new Canada Rental Protection Fund will be part of the April 16 federal budget, which Trudeau’s Liberals are already promoting aggressively as part of a long-term play to win back younger voters. 

The fund will provide $1 billion in loans and $470 million in contributions to non-profits and other partners to help them acquire affordable rental units.

An existing rental protection fund in British Columbia is a good “proof of concept” for the initiative, Trudeau told a news conference in Winnipeg. 

“They recognize that for every new affordable rental home that is built in their province, four more are lost to investors, to conversions, to demolition, and to rent increases,”Trudeau said.

“And this is happening in communities right across the country.” 

Thursday’s announcement was just the latest in a series of new housing measures unveiled by the Liberal government during a campaign-style pre-budget tour across the country that got underway last week. 

The renewed political focus on housing policy comes as experts warn significant government action is needed to spur home construction and help close the gap between supply and demand.

Home prices and activity in the housing market are expected to rebound as the Bank of Canada begins lowering interest rates, with economists widely expecting rate cuts to begin in June or July.

As Trudeau spoke, the Conservatives were quick to point to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing  Corp. that warns next year’s home prices could match 2022’s peaks and exceed them by 2026.

Thursday’s housing market outlook report also said housing starts in Canada would likely decline this year before recovering in 2025 and 2026 — a reflection of the lingering impact of higher interest rates.

Protecting and expanding the country’s rental stock has been a particular focus for all three levels of government in recent months as Canadians face skyrocketing rents.

Advocates in the social housing and non-profit space have been calling for a mechanism to help them buy up affordable rentals that might otherwise be sold off to investors. 

Both the Conservatives and the NDP, however, were quick to pan the announcement, both of them blaming the governing party for helping to create the housing crisis in the first place. 

As they’ve done for months, the Opposition Tories blamed the Liberals writ large for soaring housing costs. The New Democrats, who have been calling for a similar fund, called the Liberal measure too meagre and too late to have much impact. 

So far, the measures the government has been proposing to address the housing crisis appear inspired by policy ideas from Mike Moffatt, a senior director of policy and innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute.

Many of the recommendations made in two reports co-authored by the institute have been adopted by the Liberals since the fall, including Thursday’s announcement of a new acquisition fund.

On Wednesday, Trudeau said the Liberals would add another $15 billion to an apartment construction loan program, bringing available funding to $55 billion. 

The loan program was launched in 2017 and has helped create more than 48,000 homes so far. It’s aimed at building at least 131,000 apartments in the next decade.

On Tuesday, the federal government announced a $6-billion infrastructure fund to support homebuilding and a $400 million top-up to the housing accelerator fund.

The Liberals say that funding for provinces and territories will come with conditions, including adopting the recently announced renters’ bill of rights and allowing fourplexes to be built on residential land in municipalities.

Premiers from several provinces, including Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, have slammed the federal government for overstepping into provincial jurisdiction. 

3) Home prices could hit peak levels by next year, set new highs in 2026: CMHC report

Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is forecasting that real estate prices could match peak levels seen in early 2022 by next year and reach new highs by 2026. New homes are built in Ottawa on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is forecasting home prices could match peak levels seen in early 2022 by next year and reach new highs by 2026.

The agency’s latest housing market outlook report also says housing starts in Canada are expected to decline this year before recovering in 2025 and 2026, reflecting the lagged effect of higher interest rates on new construction.

A report last week from the agency showed construction began on 137,915 new units last year across Canada’s six largest cities, as levels remained in line with the past three years due to a surge of new apartments.

But it says despite an increase in rental housing coming on the market in 2023, supply is not forecast to keep up with demand, leading to higher rents and lower vacancy rates in the coming years.

CMHC says affordability in the homeownership market will also be a concern for the next three years, as declining mortgage rates and the strongest population growth since the 1950s will likely spur a rebound in home sales and prices.

It predicts sales levels from 2025 to 2026 will slightly surpass the past 10-year average but remain below the record levels recorded from 2020 to 2021, due to how expensive housing remains.