HAMILTON, ON, May 3, 2024
/CNW/ - One of the biggest pressures on people right now is
housing. Young Canadians – particularly Millennials and Gen Z
– are being priced out of their communities. Families are finding
it difficult to get a good place to settle down. Rising rents and
the high cost of buying a home are making it more difficult for
younger generations to find a place to call their own. We need more
homes in Canada, and we need to
keep them affordable.
The Prime Minister, Justin
Trudeau, today highlighted measures included in Budget 2024
and Canada's Housing Plan
to make the housing market fairer for renters and first-time home
buyers.
Budget 2024 proposes a landmark measure to make rental
payment history count toward your credit score. For most young
people, the biggest payment you make is on rent – and if you've
been paying that on time for years, that should count toward your
credit score. With Budget 2024, you can opt-in to have your on-time
rent payments improve your credit score. So, when it comes time to
apply for a mortgage, you get a better deal, and get a place of
your own, sooner.
Earlier this week, we tabled the Notice of Ways and Means Motion
to introduce the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 –
and start our work to get this legislation to Canadians. We're
prioritizing this bill for a quick, unanimous passage in Parliament
– because Canadians need these supports, now.
Measures in the Budget Implementation Act
include:
Enhancing the Home Buyers' Plan.
- Increasing the Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal limit
from $35,000 to $60,000 so that first-time home buyers
can save up to $25,000 more for their
down payment faster.
- Extending the grace period for Registered Retirement Savings
Plan (RRSP) withdrawals for home buying by an additional three
years so that first-time homeowners are not required to
start repaying their Home Buyers' Plan withdrawals to their RRSP
for up to five years, as opposed to two.
Protecting Canadians from unfair foreign buyers.
- Extending the ban on foreign buying of Canadian homes by an
additional two years, meaning that foreign investors cannot buy
residential properties in Canada.
Keeping housing available for the middle class.
- Cracking down on short-term rental operators that
do not comply with the relevant provincial or municipal laws.
- Launching a $50 million
short-term rental enforcement fund to support provinces,
territories, and municipalities in their work to unlock homes for
Canadians.
These measures will help make sure a home for sale or for rent
actually goes to a student, a young family, or a senior – not a big
corporation or a foreign investor trying to hoard up supply. It
will help renters get a fair rent and, if they'd like to, move into
home ownership a lot sooner. It will unlock millions of new homes,
meaning that Canadians get a place of their own, at a price they
can actually afford.
We're building more homes and making sure they're affordable –
and it's just one of the things included in Budget 2024. Alongside
these measures, we're growing our economy, investing in health
care, and creating good-paying jobs so that every generation can
get ahead.
Quotes
"For too long, renters and first-time home
buyers haven't been getting a level playing field. We're changing
that. With Budget 2024, we're cracking down on short-term rentals
and foreign home buyers, giving more power to renters and
first-time home buyers, and making the housing market fairer for
every generation."
— The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau,
Prime Minister of Canada
"Our budget is about fairness for every generation, especially
for Millennials and Gen Z. It is made up of real, tangible measures
that are going to help more younger Canadians get those first keys
of their own. We're acting now because the cost of inaction today
would be borne chiefly by younger Canadians – and we will not leave
them behind."
— The Hon. Chrystia Freeland,
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
"We are working with partners across the country to solve the
housing crisis, and Budget 2024 helps to make that possible. With a
plan to build more homes, make it easier to rent or own a home, and
helping those who can't afford a home, we can restore the promise
of Canada, where every generation
can afford a place to call home."
— The Hon. Sean Fraser,
Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities
Quick Facts
- To help solve Canada's housing
crisis, Budget 2024 proposes to:
- Restore generational fairness for renters, particularly
Millennials and Gen Z, by taking new action to protect renters'
rights and unlock pathways for them to become homeowners. Learn
more.
- Launch a new $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund
to accelerate the construction or upgrade of essential
infrastructure across the country and get more homes built for
Canadians. Learn more.
- Top-up the Apartment Construction Loan Program with
$15 billion, make new reforms so it is easier to access, and
launch Canada Builds to call on all provinces and territories to
join a Team Canada effort to build more homes, faster. Learn
more.
- Support renters by launching a new $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund
to preserve more rental homes and make sure they stay affordable.
Learn more.
- Change the way we build homes in Canada by announcing over $600 million to
make it easier and cheaper to build more homes, faster, including
through a new Homebuilding Technology and Innovation Fund and a new
Housing Design Catalogue. Learn more.
- Support housing and infrastructure needs in First Nations,
Inuit, and Métis communities through an investment of $918 million so they can grow and thrive. Learn
more.
- Build more affordable homes on public lands – and make housing
fairer for every generation. Learn more.
- A new Deputy Minister of Public Lands and Housing position has
also been created within the Privy Council Office. The Deputy
Minister will oversee and report on federal efforts to build more
homes for Canadians through the use of public lands, providing a
single point of accountability within the public service. An
appointment to this role was announced recently.
- On April 12, 2024, the federal
government released its ambitious housing plan, Solving the
housing crisis: Canada's Housing
Plan, supported by new investments from Budget 2024. At
the heart of this plan lies a commitment to make housing affordable
so that no hard-working Canadian spends more than 30 per cent of
their income on housing. The plan acknowledges the diverse needs of
Canadians and is centred around these three pillars:
- Building more homes by bringing down the costs of homebuilding,
helping cities make it easier to build homes at a faster pace,
changing the way Canadian homebuilders manufacture homes, and
growing the workforce to ensure we get the job done.
- Making it easier to own or rent a home by ensuring that every
renter or homeowner has a home that suits their needs, and the
stability to retain it.
- Helping Canadians who can't afford a home by building more
affordable housing for students, seniors, persons with
disabilities, equity-deserving communities, and eliminating chronic
homelessness in Canada.
- The Home Buyers' Plan is a program that allows Canadians to
withdraw from RRSPs to buy or build a qualifying
home for themselves, as first-time home buyers, or for
a specified disabled person.
- Canada is already building
more homes faster and making housing more affordable through:
- The Apartment Construction Loan Program, a $40 billion
initiative that is being topped up with an additional
$15 billion in Budget 2024 to boost the construction of
new rental homes by providing low-cost financing to homebuilders.
Since 2017, the Apartment Construction Loan Program has committed
over $18 billion in loans to support the creation of more than
48,000 new rental homes. With our recently announced measures, the
Apartment Construction Loan Program is now on track to help build
over 131,000 new rental homes across Canada by 2031-32.
- The Affordable Housing Fund, a $14+ billion initiative
that is being topped up with an additional $1 billion in Budget 2024 to launch a new rapid
housing stream. The Fund supports the creation of new market and
below-market rental housing and the repair and renewal of existing
housing. It is designed to attract partnerships and investments to
develop projects that meet a broad spectrum of housing needs, from
shelters to affordable homeownership. As of December 31, 2023, the Fund has committed $8+
billion to repair or renew over 150,000 homes and support the
construction of more than 32,000 new homes.
- The Housing Accelerator Fund, a $4 billion initiative that
is being topped up with an additional $400 million in
Budget 2024 to encourage municipalities to incentivize
building by making transformative changes, such as removing
prohibitive zoning barriers. To date, the federal government has
signed 179 Housing Accelerator Fund agreements which, combined,
will fast-track an estimated total of over 750,000 housing units
across the country over the next decade.
- The Rapid Housing Initiative, a $4 billion fund that is
fast-tracking the construction of 15,500 new affordable homes for
people experiencing homelessness or in severe housing need by 2026.
The Rapid Housing Initiative also supports the acquisition of
existing buildings for the purpose of rehabilitation or conversion
to permanent affordable housing units, focusing on the housing
needs of the most vulnerable, including people experiencing or at
risk of homelessness, women fleeing domestic violence, seniors,
Indigenous Peoples, and persons with disabilities.
- Progress on these and other programs and initiatives under
Canada's National Housing Strategy
are updated quarterly at www.placetocallhome.ca. The Housing
Funding Initiatives Map shows housing projects that have been
developed.
- Since 2015, the federal government has helped almost two
million Canadians find a place to call home.
Associated Links
- Fairness for Every Generation
- Budget 2024: Fairness for Every Generation
- 2023 Fall Economic Statement
- Solving the housing crisis: Canada's Housing Plan
- The Home Buyers' Plan
This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca
SOURCE Prime Minister's Office