Housing Crisis

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The mayor of Oakville is blaming developers for the unaffordable cost of a home in the greater Hamilton and Toronto area. He is concerned Ontario’s Greenbelt will be broken to make way for more housing, and he says the supply of homes isn’t really the problem.

The Premier has said the Greenbelt won’t be opened for development. It’s a swath of land that was protected in 2005 and developers and realtors are saying they don’t necessarily need that land but they say they can’t meet current demands.

Rob Burton, the mayor of Oakville says Halton region has issued thousands of permits for homes that aren’t being built.

“Developers are sitting on supply, so that they trickle it into the market so the prices will rise and the real estate industry is partner in that.”

He says Toronto’s chief planner is echoing his concerns but Hamilton Halton homebuilders say that might just be the lag time of development.

The Ontario Real Estate association agrees with developers, that permits aren’t being issued fast enough.

Burton says the growth targets the province set are reasonable and Oakville is meeting them. He says Halton has 8800 permits issued for homes not being built. Toronto’s planner says that city has more than 118 000 permits issued in serviced areas that are not being built.

The Homebuilders association says those numbers are surprising, it has no knowledge of developers waiting on properties that could be developed now.