A new poll of residents in Toronto and Vancouver has found that homeowners feel strongly that house prices have become unaffordable and that governments should intervene to bring prices down.
The Angus Reid Institute's “Pain Index” scores people's answers to questions about housing and transportation. While responses in each city differ, the majority of respondents in both Toronto and Vancouver identified housing as a paramount concern and primary issue.
In Toronto, housing affordability stole the top spot from transportation and traffic concerns, which were the dominant issues the last time Angus Reid conducted its survey on the same topic in 2015.
The survey notes that housing prices in both cities have climbed sharply in recent years. In Toronto, 56 per cent of homeowners said current housing prices were hurting the Greater Toronto Area — 13 per cent said they would like to see prices drop by 30 per cent or more, and 22 per cent said by 10 per cent or more.
Those numbers were even higher in Vancouver, where nearly three quarters of homeowners said the cost of a home was "unreasonably high" — 20 per cent said prices should drop by 30 per cent or more, and 29 per cent by at least 10 per cent.
Additionally, people in Vancouver and Toronto would like to see more government intervention to help curb house prices — despite skepticism that anything can be done to keep costs from rising, the study found.
Since 2015, provincial and municipal governments in both regions have implemented measures like additional taxes for foreign homebuyers. In Metro Vancouver, housing prices have stalled and even dropped for single family homes since the policies were put in place. Some measures they support or would like to see in place include a speculation tax for those who don't pay taxes in their province and limiting the number of properties foreign buyers can purchase.
