安省新政策将对房市有哪些影响 (二)

 

 

New rules for landlords

 

 

There will be "New" standard lease agreements. These will standardize the verbiage currently used in leasing agreements and further restrict any existing wiggling room for the Landlords.

 

It will become more difficult for Landlords to kick out tenants using the excuse to use the apartment themselves. Tenants will be "adequately compensated" if asked to vacate under this rule. It is believed that one month's rent payment to the tenant will be part of this compensation package.

 

When Landlords apply for rent increases above the rent-control limit they are normally entitled to in exchange for making renovations or other improvements. they must now not have any outstanding elevator work orders on such buildings or the increases will be disallowed. This is to address a common situation in high-rise condominiums where Landlords are found to be

delinquent in rectifying elevator issues in a timely manner and causing major inconvenience for tenants.

 

There will be measures to make proceedings before the Landlord and Tenant Board "fairer and easier for renters." This will further weaken the Landlords rights which are already diminishing under the current rules.

 

All of these proposals will benefit the renters only and punish the Landlords. They will discourage anyone from becoming a Landlord!

 

Development charge rebate

 

A $125-million, five-year program to rebate a portion of development charges aims to spur the construction of new  (rental) apartment buildings. This is supposedly a program to encourage developers to build more rental apartments. However, given the amount and the spread-out time-frame to distribute this money, we cannot see how it can have an immediate and significant impact on the market.

 

物业空置税
Vacant homes tax

 

The province is giving Toronto and certain other municipalities the required taxing power to target vacant homes. The proposal is to charge offending investors if they do not rent or occupy the dwelling while they wait for a housing price increase on their "speculation".  The tax will be just like Vancouver with a 1 percent fee.

 

Toronto officials are now studying utility data to come up with a more accurate number on vacant homes. There is rough estimate of 65,000 of these from census data. Vancouver's homes without permanent occupants went from 5748 in 1981 to 22169 in 2011.

 

The definition of a vacant home will always be a grey area and open to debate and challenges. For every definition this rule will define, there will be a countermeasure developed by aggressive investors, speculators, and their smart lawyers to skirt its enforcement.

 

 

Creating a housing-supply team and housing-advisory group

 

The Ontario Government is creating new teams that will work with municipalities, developers and environmental groups to eliminate obstacles to building. Currently, it is the job for the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) that deals with disputes between developers and municipalities. It is felt that the municipal governments, residents groups, and environmentalists are obstacles to the developers with their obstructive by-laws, development restrictions, and concerns. Developers will subsequently have to appeal to the OMB who will as arbitrators and projects are delayed.

 

 

A second new organization made up of economists, academics and developers will give the government quarterly advice about how the housing measures are working and whether more steps are needed.

 

我们要问的是,如果这些新机构10年前就建立起来的话,我们是否会出现目前的房屋严重短缺问题。

Many of us wonder if these proposed organizations were in place over the last decade, we may not be in a housing-supply shortage position as severe as what we have today.

 

We will continue with the rest of the New Ontario Housing Rules next time.