Today, the Ontario government announced 16 measures to address some of the challenges facing Ontario families as they look to purchase a home.
While we have concerns with some of these measures, the government has adopted several REALTOR® recommendations and committed to working with us going forward on a review of the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (REBBA).
Some of the favorable policies in today’s announcement are as a result of a tonne of hard work by OREA leaders and staff who have held 16 meetings with the Premier, Minister Sousa, Minister Ballard, Minister MacCharles and senior officials over the last few months While the government did not accept every recommendation, the desire to consult with OREA shows the respect our friends at Queen’s Park have for REALTORS®.
As part of our work, OREA also embarked on a new strategic approach aimed at building a much higher profile in the public debate and with the media on real estate issues. Our higher profile has helped drive the government to act on issues like housing supply as part of their broader plan.
What’s in the Plan?
Altogether the government announced 16 new measures aimed at tackling housing affordability. Most of these measures must be enacted through legislation which will likely come in the form of the Ontario Budget. You can see the full list here.
Here are some highlights:
Non-Resident Speculation Tax
- Implementing a new 15-per-cent Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) on the price of homes in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) purchased by individuals who are not citizens or permanent residents of Canada or by foreign corporations.
- Upon the enactment of legislation, the NRST will be effective as of April 21, 2017. Binding agreements of purchase and sale signed on or before April 20, 2017 are not subject to the NRST.
- The province listened to OREA’s advice on the NRST will be providing rebates or exemptions to students, workers, refugees and people who acquire citizenship within four years. Please consult this technical bulletin for more information.
Rent Control
- Expanding rent control to all private rental units in Ontario, including those built after 1991. This will ensure increases in rental costs can only rise at the rate posted in the annual provincial rent increase guideline.
- The increase is capped at a maximum of 2.5 per cent. Legislation will be introduced that, if passed, will enact this change effective April 20.
Housing Supply
- The government is taking positive steps to bring more housing supply into the market. These were a focus of OREA’s advocacy leading up to this announcement as a way to help make home ownership more affordable for Ontario families.
- Specifically, the province will sell off excess lands for development, strike a Housing Group to examine barriers like red tape to development and work with municipalities to encourage developers to build on vacant land that is serviced and ready for development.
Review of REBBA
- One of the announcements made by the province as part of the plan was a commitment to do a broad review of REBBA including looking at practices like multiple representation and double ending.
- The commitment in the plan is as follows:
“Working with the real estate profession and consumers, the province is committing to review the rules real estate agents are required to follow to ensure that consumers are fairly represented in real estate transactions. This includes practices such as double ending. The government will modernize its rules, strengthen professionalism and improve the home-buying experience with a goal to make Ontario a leader in real estate standards.”
- You may remember that the government originally committed to reviewing multiple representation more commonly known in the media as ‘double ending’ after the CBC Marketplace report aired in November 2016. After the report aired, OREA learned that many inside government were urging the Minister and Premier to ban multiple representation.
- Recognizing the government’s commitment to Act on multiple representation, OREA’s strategy has been to encourage the province to work with us on a full review of REBBA to raise the standards of Ontario’s real estate profession across the board.
- Such a review would also be an opportunity to discuss multiple representation but to do so in a much more thoughtful/rationale way. It will also be an opportunity to lobby for other changes to REBBA like PRECs, speciality designations, greater fines, higher education standards and other changes which will help REALTORS® do business better.
- OREA’s strategy was to avoid a situation like British Columbia where the province responded to bad media coverage and banned multiple representation in knee jerk fashion. Our approach has ensured that the government did not make any unilateral changes without broad consultation from the real estate profession.
- There is more work to do on this file and while we cannot guarantee that there won’t be restrictions placed on multiple representation going forward, the government has committed to an open and thoughtful conversation on this important issue to Ontario REALTORS®.