GUELPH — MPP Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to new data showing that larger investors dominate condo ownership in smaller cities in Ontario.
Ontario’s housing crisis is at a boiling point – we can’t afford to wait to take action.
We’re already losing affordable rental towers in huge numbers as they are purchased and then renovated to drive up rents – displacing residents along the way.
Meanwhile, new supply is being bought up by speculators, driving up rental and housing markets alike.
First-time homebuyers can’t compete with deep-pocketed speculators. Ontario needs a strategy to clamp down on speculation in the housing market.
I have the bold solutions to ensure we make housing for people, not profit:
- Reinstate rent controls on all units to protect tenants from being unfairly priced out of their homes;
- Implement vacancy controls to get rid of the incentive for landlords to drive out long-standing tenants in order to increase rents;
- Build 182,000 new permanently affordable community housing rental homes over the next decade;
- Implement a multiple property speculation tax on people and corporations who purchase more than two houses or condominium units in Ontario; and
- Implement a province-wide vacant homes tax to make it harder to use vacant homes as a lucrative place to park cash.