File photo.
Costs from zoning regulations, development charges and housing limits added $264,000 to the price of a single-family home in Victoria between 2007 and 2016, according to C.D. Howe Institute research.
Released Tuesday morning, C.D. Howe says people looking to buy a home in Canada’s hottest real-estate markets paid an average of $229,000 over that time-frame because of regulations for builders to construct more homes.
The added cost is calculated to be as much as $644,000 in Vancouver and $311,000 in Abbotsford.
The institute says those charges faced by developers to fund the infrastructure to build new homes is just passed on to buyers.
“They are requiring developers to pay for the municipal infrastructure all up front and not over time, so that all gets loaded onto the sticker shock of housing,” C.D. Howe Associate Director of research and study co-author Benjamin Dachis said.
Dachis says the study proves the charges are “flawed” and cities should consider allowing developers to pay regulation fees over the course of a house’s existence to help slow skyrocketing prices.
Dachis and co-researcher Vincent Thivierge looked at what financial challenges developers have to deal with and by how much they increase the cost of housing, and what the gap is between the cost of housing for a buyer and what it costs to build that housing.
The non-profit think tank says the numbers draw comparisons with Manhattan and U.K. housing.
With files from the Canadian Press.
Andy Neal
