i'll believe it when i see it.
the issue isn't development fees, it's actually low demand and it's not something that can be resolved by tinkering with a fee structure or an interest rate. the expectation is that they're mostly going to build big houses in the suburbs, which is kind of out of touch. there's an underlying expectation from government that people want to continue living in the 20th century, but they don't. these developers build these family homes in these isolated communities and they can't sell them because nobody wants to live in isolated suburbia anymore. people want to live closer to downtown, so they save up to buy houses in the core, and sit on rental units in the core for years in order to do it.
the politicians don't get the logic because they don't understand the market. people buying homes don't want new houses out in the 905, they want old houses in the 416. these old houses in the core of the city have massive demand, so the price shoots up. there are cheaper houses out in the 905 that don't sell because nobody wants to live there.
if you want to expand the city, it would help to expand the downtown character of the city so people continue to feel like they're in the city, while moving further out of it. that's the only way to increase the size of the city, itself. this might mean more homes made of brick and less made out of pre-assembled factory instruction. it might mean expanding transit and widening sidewalks to make suburban areas feel more like downtown. it might mean more nightlife options, and less big box stores.
that might increase sales, but none of this actually solves the housing problem.
frankly, the city should be reversing the flow of people. instead of building urban sprawl that everybody is trying to get out of in order to get back downtown, they should build large skyscrapers full of low-rent apartments on the edge of the city, moving tens of thousand of poor people to the outskirts of town and let the market react to that. people want out of suburbia. but if you build up in suburbia, it will feel less like suburbia. the residents of these buildings will build new communities and new cities around their structures, stores and other things will open, etc and then the property values will rise when the area urbanizes.
i've been watching them do this for years, now. twenty years, it seems. all politicians ever want to build or support building are cookie-cutter mcmansions in boring nowheresville, and they can't sell, and can't resell. the politicians need to get their head around the reality that they're out of touch with canadians, who want to live downtown.
the other thing is the question of livable condos and apartments downtown, and the government needs to intervene, because what the market is building is dorm rooms masquerading as condos. but it has to understand the market first.
i want every politician to make a pledge to try to understand what housing demand is before they commit to spending any more money on it.