CMB MAGAZINE cmba-achc.ca spring 2019 | 9
editorialsummary
buyers' markets still have no real impact on
helping the next generation of home buyers
swing the hey down payment and mortgage
payments required for their first purchase.
So now what? Has government exhausted
its bag of tricks?
In the Fall 2018 issue of Canadian Mortgage
Broker, we wrote about the housing model
deployed in Japan. Initiated approximately 30
years ago, Tokyo, the world's most populous
city, built a record amount of housing when
Japan enacted legislation to force local
governments to radically simplify zoning rules
and eliminate permit approval times. is
resulted in accessible housing despite a surge
in demand. As of last January, the average
price of a newly constructed single-family
house in Tokyo was the equivalent of $780,000
(Canadian) and only $510,000 (Canadian)
in its western suburbs. Tokyo avoided urban
sprawl, and instead of housing people in ever
diminishing square footage, increased people's
living space by approximately 28 per cent.
Media reports indicate that the City of
Toronto is in the process of constructing an
astonishing number of new skyscrapers –
more than 400! is will undoubtedly provide
first-time home buyers with an array of
urgently needed purchase options. However,
this will also inevitably result in what has been
dubbed "urban tall and sprawl," with vertical
sprawl in the city centre and horizontal single-
family sprawl away from the downtown cores.
MISSING MIDDLE
Of note from the housing solutions is the
"missing middle," represented by low-rise
townhouse and laneway house options; these
could supply more appropriate family homes in
yellow belt regions. If you are unfamiliar with
the term "yellow belt," it was coined by urban
planner, Gil Meslin, to describe the vast swaths
of land occupied by single family homes. e
Ryerson City Building Institute has recently
completed a comprehensive report which
concludes that the city of Mississauga could
transform its yellow belt regions into 174,000
new multi-unit homes through low- and
medium-density intensification. is yet-to-
be-adopted solution provides opportunities for
families to live close to transit, jobs, schools and
services in desirable neighbourhoods, while
preserving greenbelts.
While our governments introduce
fragmented, piecemeal solutions to enhance
housing supply and affordability, real, long-
term solutions which have the potential to
create desirable, livable communities are hard
to find. We still need all governments at the
municipal, provincial and federal levels to come
together on this one. If this cannot happen on
its own due to the lack of political willpower,
then perhaps it is time to adopt the Japanese
model, and set regional mandates to create
real, tangible solutions to our housing
affordability problem.
