Mayor Gregor Urges Municipalities to intervene and Resolve Scorching Housing market

The mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson is urging the federal and provincial governments to do something about the country’s impending real estate crisis

Over the past three years, the suburbs have been affected by the frantic sales activities within Vancouver. Sales have been relatively high across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.

“These trends are not sustainable and we need to be wide awake to the risks they pose to the stability of our economy, let alone the impact they have in pushing local residents, especially young people, families and seniors, out of our neighborhoods,” Mayor Gregor said in a statement on Sunday.

In an attempt to further emphasize on his main point, the mayor urged for the government to change their tax system to a more favorable arrangement such as a speculation tax. He believes if this system is imposed, invertors wouldn’t be able to make any changes for short-term gains.

The mayor went on and raised an issue that occurred in May, last year when housing critics rallied to voice out their complaints regarding the high home prices at that time. Last week, the mayor said that the situation would only get worse if the municipalities do nothing about the issue at hand.

“While adding more housing supply is crucial, it is not an affordability solution on its own,” Mr. Robertson said.

“With unregulated, speculative global capital flowing into Metro Vancouver’s real estate, we are seeing housing prices completely disconnected from local incomes. First and foremost, housing needs to be for homes, not just treated as a commodity,” he added.

“I urge the provincial and federal governments to heed the warnings from the financial sector and implement clear measures to rein in the excesses of Vancouver’s housing market,” Mr. Robertson, who has been lobbying Ottawa to invest money to create more affordable housing, he said.