Where Canada's major parties stand on housing.
With a federal election around the corner, housing is once again one of the biggest issues on the table. Whether you're a buyer, investor, renter, or just trying to wrap your head around the North Shore market, it helps to understand where the major parties stand.
Let’s take a look at what the Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP are proposing - broken down into three key areas that matter most right now: affordability, foreign ownership/speculation, and the rental market.
1. Housing Affordability: What Are the Parties Promising?
🟥 Liberals:
- $20 billion social infrastructure plan, prioritizing investment in affordable housing and senior facilities.
- Launch a federal housing corporation (Build Canada Homes), engaging with the private sector to get more homes built.
- Eliminate GST on new homes under $1M for first-time buyers
- Fund more affordable housing through municipalities
🟦 Conservatives:
- Infrastructure funding tied to housing – tying federal infrastructure dollars to municipal housing targets
- Maintain trades apprenticeship grants and support trade schools and union halls
- Eliminate GST on all homes under $1.3M
- Fast-track permits by reducing regulatory barriers and expediting zoning/permitting processes
- Release 15% of federal land for housing (incl. selling up to 6,000 federal buildings)
🟧 NDP:
- Aim to build 3 million homes by 2030 (priority on affordable, non-market housing)
- Invest $1B over five years to acquire public land dedicated towards rent-controlled home construction
- Train 100,000 new tradespeople to address labour shortages
- Supports government led low-interest and long-term mortgages
My take:
We’ve heard ambitious targets before. The question is: how fast can shovels hit the ground? Supply is clearly the shared focus - but each party has a different idea on how to get there, and how much government should lead the charge. On the North Shore, where available land is limited and build times are long, affordability is going to depend just as much on zoning, infrastructure, and local execution.
2. Foreign Ownership and Speculation: Still a Hot Topic?
🟥 Liberals:
- Maintain and/or extend the foreign buyer ban beyond 2027
- Strengthen anti-money laundering oversight, including increased penalties for circumventing foreign buyer rules
- Crack down on short-term rental platforms in major markets
🟦 Conservatives:
- Maintain and consider modifications of the foreign buyer ban
- Focus more on domestic investors/speculators
- Require transparent ownership disclosures
🟧 NDP:
- Ban foreign ownership of existing residential homes permanently
- Tax vacant homes held for speculation
- Expand oversight of real estate trusts and investment companies with a Beneficial Ownership Registry
My take:
Foreign ownership doesn’t play a huge role in most of North Vancouver, but speculative buying certainly has. The proposed policies here seem more like refinements than total game-changers - but stronger enforcement and transparency could cool investor-driven demand in key markets.
3. Rental Market: Support for Renters
🟥 Liberals:
- Fund affordable and supportive housing through the Housing Accelerator Fund
- Crack down on illegal short-term rentals
- Encourage purpose-built rental through federal incentives
🟦 Conservatives:
- Offer tax deferrals (capital cost allocations) to encourage rental development
- Unlock federal land for rental housing
- Oppose rent control, arguing that these policies will discourage investment in rental housing supply
🟧 NDP:
- Moratorium on large corporate purchases of affordable housing
- GST/HST exemptions on new rental construction
- Strengthen tenant protections across the board, including a ban on renovictions
- Support co-ops and non-market housing as long-term rental supply
My take:
The rental market is stretched thin, especially on the North Shore. While building more is the obvious fix, tenant protections and landlord incentives need to evolve together. It'll be interesting to see how each party balances support for renters while still encouraging people to invest in rental housing.
Matt's Final Thought
All three parties are responding to the housing crisis with bold promises - but the real impact will come down to execution. For those of us living and working in North Vancouver, it’s worth watching not just what gets proposed, but how these plans address local realities: high land costs, zoning barriers, transit integration, and municipal capacity.
If you’re thinking about buying, selling, or investing - and wondering how federal policy could impact your next move -I’m always happy to chat.
