Налоговая реформа может спасти некоммерческий сектор отечественного жилья в Канаде

Canada is playing catch-up after four decades of building almost no social housing. Unfortunately, the same cost pressures that make building for-profit housing challenging are also blocking the construction and conversion of non-profit and community housing. That is a significant problem as there is a real need for housing that the market cannot provide. There is, however, a path forward. Governments can boost the not-for-profit housing sector through tax reform. Across the country, there have been improvements in housing affordability over the past two years, as average asking rents have fallen by over 7 per cent. But for many low and middle-income Canadians, it is still impossible to make ends meet, particularly with the rising cost of food and other necessities. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW These rents, however, can only fall so fast and so far; the for-profit sector will not build new homes below cost. Land costs remain stubbornly high, taxes on new construction have risen faster than inflation since the beginning of the century, and construction costs are unlikely to fall, particularly with global trade tensions. Canada can and must reduce these costs, by going big on modern methods of construction, adopting better building codes and by making density legal, sustainable and viable. But even with those initiatives, the cost of homebuilding will not fall low enough to allow market forces to ensure all low-income Canadians are adequately housed, creating a need for more non-profit and community housing. The grim irony at the heart of non-profit and community housing is that these homes are needed when they are the most difficult to build — that is, during periods of high construction costs. Raising capital is particularly challenging for not-for-profits, as typically they have limited access to their own equity, thus requiring them to rely on grants and loans which in turn also have limited capacity. It is not rare for projects to rely on three or more sources of funding, colloquially known as “funding lasagna,” each with a different set of rules and reporting requirements. It is a minor miracle that any housing is built in this environment. Among the largest challenges for not-for-profit housing providers are acquiring land or pre-existing apartment buildings, as they must compete with for-profit buyers, who can afford to pay more. This leads non-profit developers to pay inflated prices for acquisition and then having to rely on subsidies to cover funding shortfalls. The federal government can create a level playing field for not-for-profits through tweaks to the tax system. One way is for the government to give a full capital gains tax exemption to sellers of real estate assets if the sale is to an accredited non-profit housing developer, municipality or crown corporation. This creates an incentive for sellers to accept a lower price for land and buildings when selling to a not-for-profit housing provider. There are precedents for the federal government to use capital gains incentives to encourage the sale or gifts of land to non-for profits. One example is Canada Ecological Gifts Program, which sets the capital-gains inclusion rate drops to zero when ecologically sensitive land is transferred to an eligible recipient. Since 1995 the program has recorded over 2,000 donations worth more than $1.3 billion for a total of over 252,000 hectares. There is no one single policy reform that will end the housing crisis. Canada needs more homes for ownership, and more for rent. It needs to address the cost of new housing construction for for-profits and not-for-profits alike, and must do so in a way that creates great, family-friendly, climate-friendly communities. It also must recognize that the not-for-profit housing sector faces a unique set of challenges, and address barriers from limited availability of construction capital to having to outbid the private sector for development land.