Canada

The Liberal and Conservative housing plans aren’t so dissimilar.

There are similarities for sure between the Liberal and Conservative plans, but only the Liberal plan involves the federal government directly involved in the building of homes through the Build Canada Homes program. I see that as a significant difference that should eliminate some of the major friction that has prevented increasing supply.

The NDP are the ones proposing non-market housing solutions.

Indeed kudos to the NDP for addressing this directly.

The conservatives want the GST off ALL new homes. The liberals just want the GST of First time home buyers buying new homes. The conservatives plan is just a 5% break for rich people buying houses, the liberals housing plan might actually see the new houses being built as affordable for first time home buyers over 30yrs with 5% down.

I haven't heard any arguments that maintaining property values is a bottleneck preventing more buildings. How does that make sense?

I've heard that policies that crater home values can't be chased (ie increased taxes on selling property, or other tax disincentives for houses to be so expensive or a vehicle for investments) but even those proposals don't actually address the root problem of not enough homes.

We have to wait for the boomers to die. Their wealth is all tied up in their overvalued homes, it's their retirement strategy. They're never going to agree to anything that ~~lowers property values~~ provides affordable housing.

I agree- we need more midrise buildings throughout.

IMO Canada's problem isnt one of feasibility but of desire. By and large, people dont WANT midrise apartment buildings. The vast majority of people want the white picket fence dream in a subdivision and two cars. I think the govt needs to get back into building housing on both the federal and provincial level, not just leaving it up to the upper tier municipalities. The housing that IS built by those municipalities typically is exactly what you're requesting - less car centric, cheaper, midrise buildings. They just don't build enough of them. If we can make enough of those buildings by the govt (who can ignore the low profitability of those builds), maybe we can make them desirable enough that people change their mind about suburbia. At the very least, providing apartments meant for a full family would be a huge step forwards compared to the current offerings.

Agreed, but that isn't what I'm talking about.