PTT thresholds: REBGV makes housing affordability recommendations to province
REBGV Staff
REBGV
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) made three recommendations on how to make home ownership more affordable during consultations with the provincial government in June 2022.
Each year, the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services holds a public consultation to hear recommendations on how to spend next year’s provincial budget.
For more than 35 years, REBGV has contributed to these discussions by advocating for greater housing affordability through reducing the property transfer tax. In recent years, recommendations to increase housing supply have also been added.
This year, REBGV urged the provincial government to:
Mandate inclusionary zoning by amending the Local Government Act and the Vancouver Charter to require local governments to:
- Pre-zone land and infrastructure for missing middle market homes including smaller-lot townhouses, row houses with basement suites, laneway homes, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. Newly created supply coming onto the market increases the number of resale listings and moderates the sales-to-active listings ratio, ultimately reducing price pressure when new and existing home owners buy new homes.
- Encourage local governments to amend zoning bylaws to allow stratification of coach houses, laneway houses, small backyard cottages, accessory dwelling units and secondary suites. The current practice among Lower Mainland local governments is that these units can only be rented out. The ability to stratify or outright sell the units would make these investments more attractive to the property owners to create more homes in their neighbourhoods
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