Quote:
Originally Posted by Nite
The only way to address the housing crisis meaningfully is to build more. prices only come down with more supply. Prices are only high now because we have been underbuilding for 2 decades now.
The only reason Toronto and Vancouver have expensive housing is do to both cities are aggressive in protecting single family homes and low density neighborhoods from being redeveloped into high densities, getting rid of the yellow belt would solve our housing issues rapidly.
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Well, Toronto keeps building more and more condos, with many units sitting empty while more and more people are pushed into more precarious housing situations or ending up unhoused. You can't just keep building glass condos for six figure incomes and expect it to solve affordability.
Yes, there is an issue of much of the city's low density areas being protected, but that is secondary to the laissez faire real estate market inflating prices for greater profits. If all those cranes in the sky were going to affordable/public housing, there wouldn't be the same issue of housing. You say that continuing to build housing will make housing come down in price, but we've been told the bubble will burst for over a decade in Toronto now, and it hasn't (
there is literally a 10 year old thread in the Canada section with this title). Units sit empty while owners wait out to make money on their investment, because the prices just continue to inflate regardless. There is no drop in prices despite ever increasing numbers of projects under construction.
It may seem oxymoronic that cities such as Toronto are filled with residential construction and yet housing continues to become harder and harder to access, but that is what is happening. And it is fueled by a capitalist class manipulating the market via speculation for obscene profit. This isn't even unique to Toronto. Vancouver, New York, Melbourne, and Auckland have similar tales.