Study Shows Delay Of Building Approval Aggravates Lack of Condo

With the ongoing show of apathy concerning the process of building approvals, a large number of condo units in Toronto are experiencing huge setbacks based on a recently released analysis by the University of Toronto’s Building Tall Research Group and the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). The named document “Evaluation of Tall Building Construction Permitting Process in Toronto” looked at the Authorised Layout and altered zoning regulation authorised process of 174 new condo projects in the city since the year 2006 till last year.

Dr. Arash Shahi, Building Tall’s research manager and a post-doctoral fellow at U of T’s Department of Civil Engineering said; “As Toronto’s population grows, the city has no choice but to build skyward with condominiums. However, our research shows that, over time, it is taking longer to get condo projects approved within the City of Toronto’s numerous policy and regulatory controls.”

One of the most important results gotten from the study was the period taken to finish off the approval which has gone up in the past decade, making things harder for those in the industry and potential condo buyers as well.

The report outlined; “A nine-month approvals target, as outlined in the Toronto Development Guide, actually took nearly 3.5 years on average in 2016. 42% of condo applications that successfully appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) from 2006 to 2016 indicated that ‘failure of the City to announce a decision’ compelled an OMB appeal – adding more cost and time than a City Council decision.”

It further explained; “A hypothetical 50-storey condo with 500 units (with an average unit cost of $470,000, according to Business Canada 2016 figures) would generate about $3,200 of property tax per unit – or $1.6 million per building in just one year. With an approvals delay of almost three years, that would represent about $5 million in lost property tax revenue for the City.”

The noteworthy repercussion of this trend is the missed chances of prospects for increasing property tax revenue by the government.