As housing prices continue to climb across Canada, forcing many first-time home buyers out of the market, a University of Guelph real estate expert says a lasting solution needs to come from the supply side.  

Dr. Paul Anglin is a professor of real estate in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics. He studies the housing market, including time-on-market, price mechanisms, price dynamics and related marketing or promotion strategies.  

Anglin said rate hikes from the Bank of Canada will have a minor effect on buyers, especially those who already own their homes, and will not solve the problem of a low supply of homes for first-time buyers. 

Instead, potential solutions may be found in the recent report by the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force. Anglin said the Ontario government is investigating ways to provide more housing that don’t involve building more “large homes with spacious backyards.” Some people may be reluctant to accept these provisions. 

The report called for reducing the weight attached to city politicians’ and residents’ objections to new developments, to reduce the construction delays that raise prices.  

It also called for changes to make it easier to build properties in the “missing middle” between single-family dwellings and high-rises.  

The question often overlooked in these types of discussions, Anglin added, is “whether supply policies should target owned or rented housing.”

Those who can afford million-dollar homes may be dissatisfied with current prices, he said, but “we should not forget that many other people have trouble paying $1,000 or $2,000 a month for a reasonable place to live. Should the policy goal be something about houses or something about people?”  

Anglin is available for interviews. 

Contact:
Dr. Paul Anglin 
panglin@uoguelph.ca