Ever wonder why so much of our city’s (dwindling) affordable rental stock are of a 50’s-60’s-early 70s vintage?
The City tries to incentivize rentals with density bonuses, the Province tries to support rentals with subsidies — what’s been missing is the Feds and the support for rentals with tax breaks and deductions.
This is an excellent overview from someone who was in the field when federal tax policy favoured investment in building rental housing:
“Market rental housing — as compared with most ‘subsidized’ and ‘affordable’ rental housing — is built by private investment. From 1946 to 1972, when the tax treatment for building new rentals was favourable, there was lots of rental housing built. In 1972, almost 50 per cent of new housing unit starts were rentals.”
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/07/06/Tax-Changes-More-Rental-Housing/?u…