What are the federal parties pitching to cure Canada's housing crisis?

A new housing project is shown under construction in Milton, Ont., on February 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

OTTAWA — Canada’s federal parties are all campaigning on plans to make it easier for Canadians to get into the housing market.

Some of those housing platforms have elements in common — promises to cut taxes on new home purchases, for instance, or to encourage local authorities to cut development charges.

Here’s what the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP have pitched so far, and what the experts are saying about their ideas.

The Liberal party

The Liberals’ housing platform incorporates some of the incumbent government’s existing policies and some new ideas under the leadership of Mark Carney.

Carney announced on March 31 a plan to double the pace of homebuilding and construct 500,000 units a year in Canada over the next decade.

A new housing agency called Build Canada Homes would bring the federal government into the business of building homes — a throwback to Ottawa’s efforts to house veterans returning from the Second World War.

This agency would oversee $35 billion in funding to streamline the construction of affordable housing and provide financing for homebuilders.

The Liberals also would look to halve development charges at the local level, a matter of municipal jurisdiction. The federal government has tried to encourage cities to adopt less restrictive development policies through the housing accelerator fund launched under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

The Liberals have said they will waive the GST on homes sold at or under $1 million for first-time homebuyers. Only Canadians buying a newly built home pay sales tax, and the federal government already offers a GST rebate on homes worth up to $450,000.

The Conservative party

A Conservative proposal would see the GST waived on newly built homes priced under $1.3 million for all buyers.

The Tories also say they would make it more attractive for municipalities to free up land, speed up permits and cut development charges to build more homes.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has focused a number of his campaign promises on the trades. He has pledged to speed up training and boost job prospects for trades workers.

One Conservative policy that would have ramifications for homebuilding is a pledge to waive the capital gains tax on any proceeds that are reinvested in Canada.

Homebuilders and investors incur capital gains tax when selling homes, although Canadians do not have to pay tax on capital gains when selling their principal residences.

The NDP

The NDP rolled out a plan on March 30 to expand the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s mandate to include offering long-term, low-interest mortgages to first-time homebuyers.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also has taken corporate landlords to task through his affordable housing policy.

The NDP says it plans to ban corporations from buying affordable rental housing and stop corporate landlords “who gouge their tenants” from getting things like low-interest federal loans, preferential tax treatment and mortgage loan insurance.

Instead, the NDP would boost the rental protection fund to help non-profits buy affordable apartments.

The party would set aside $1 billion over five years to acquire more public land for rent-controlled housing construction.

On April 6, the NDP also unveiled a plan to tie federal housing funding for provinces and municipalities to tenant-protection policies like rent control.

Like the Conservatives, the NDP are also promising to train 100,000 more workers in the skilled trades.

What are experts saying?

John Pasalis, president and broker at Realosophy in Toronto, said the biggest shift he sees in the Liberal platform is the quiet return of a program Ottawa ran in the 1970s to stimulate rental construction.

The Liberals are proposing to bring back the multi-unit rental building program, or MURB, which offers a tax break to builders on taxable income in the first few years a building is leasing units.

Pasalis said the program could make it easier for builders facing a “dead” presale market in many Canadian cities to convert condo projects into apartments.

“It’s effectively a tax incentive for builders, which effectively helps stimulate supply,” he said.

As for the promise to waive the GST on new builds, Pasalis said he sees key differences between the Liberal and Conservative proposals.

The Conservative pitch to nix the GST on purchases of homes worth up to $1.3 million opens the doors to investors buying up the newly built homes, he said, while the Liberal plan is more narrowly focused on owners who will actually live in the property.

“If we’re giving what is effectively a tax subsidy to somebody, my feeling is it should be the first-time buyers, not wealthier investors who have been shutting out the next generation,” Pasalis said.

He said the Liberal pitch should waive the GST on the first $1 million of the purchase price — and not limit it to homes worth up to that amount — because a buyer in Toronto or Vancouver purchasing a $1.1-million unit would lose out on any benefit under the plan.

Kevin Lee, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, said the Liberal plan is too narrowly focused on first-time homebuyers.

He argued Canada needs more housing of all types to fill the supply gap, allowing homeowners to move up to more expensive homes and freeing up entry-level homes for new buyers.

Pasalis said the Conservatives’ capital gains plan risks adding to the “financialization” of housing and putting more homes in the hands of investors.

Lee said Canada’s homebuilding sector needs more capital and he sees value in tax changes that make it easier for investors to fund new construction.

“Looking at the taxation system and figuring out ways to incentivize people to continue to invest and build more housing is a good thing,” he said.

Like the NDP, Lee said he supports penalizing bad actors in rental housing, but warns against painting all corporate landlords with the same brush.

Large corporations tend to be the main financial backers of purpose-built rental apartments and any efforts to restrict the flow of that capital could backfire if they’re not narrowly targeted, he said.

“Quite frankly, by being not welcoming to corporate investors in Canada, those corporate investors are investing in other places like the United States where it’s a lot easier to build purpose-built rental,” Lee said.

With files from Catherine Morrison

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2025.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press