O’Toole promises to release government real estate to build more residential properties

On Thursday, the Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole addressed the issue, many Canadians are facing – the challenges of purchasing a home. He promised, that if elected a Conservative government will provide all Canadians with a possibility to build the life they are dreaming about.

According to O’Toole, the federal government is the “biggest real estate owner in the country”, that’s why he plans to release 15% of government-owned buildings and land in order to repurpose them and build 1 million new homes during 3 years.

O’Toole wants to build most of the properties in areas connected to transit stations, as this will help add new jobs, decrease congestion, and cut emissions. The municipalities receiving federal funding for public transit will also have to raise the density near the funded transit.

The Conservative Leader promised to ban home purchases by foreign investors in case they are not going to live in them. In his opinion, such investments tend to push home prices up and sometimes can be used for hiding the proceeds of crime.

In addition to it, he plans to provide first time home-buyers with more options to buy real estate by improving mortgage stress tests, insurance rules, and creating longer mortgage terms (7-10 years).

“In case your family can afford to ignore the housing market crisis, there are three other parties you can vote for”, – he noted.

O’Toole also revealed his strategy concerning rental units, promising to stimulate construction of more purpose built rental properties in order to increase the market supply for Canadian renters.

“Across the entire country, I can hear people saying they can’t keep up with the current cost of living,” – he said, pointing out that a Conservative government would never tax capital gain on the home sale.