The Legault government preferred not to intervene in the real estate market in the budget because it could have further accentuated the soaring prices, explained the Minister of Finance Eric Girard.
There was no question, he said, of regulating the market or financially supporting new buyers who are struggling to find a property. This would have “stimulated demand” and “it’s the last thing we want”, explained the minister at a press briefing.
“The government should have put some order in the far west real estate”, thundered the solidarity deputy Ruba Ghazal on this subject. “The first buyers are left to themselves in the face of overbidding. »
The Minister of Finance, however, denied having done anything since he had implemented measures to “protect buyers”, by prohibiting, for example, brokers from engaging in “double representation” by representing at the both sellers and buyers. He also indicated that new warnings were going to be added to the forms used by brokers concerning the importance of inspections.
The rise in prices, he said, stems from the fact that Montreal is “catching up” with the Ontario real estate market. Even if this trend is set to continue in the long term with the growth of the Quebec economy, buyers can nevertheless expect a “slowdown” in the coming months.
New social housing but not enough
“The government continues to deny that there is a housing crisis in Quebec,” said former Liberal finance minister Carlos Leitao. The housing crisis was also described as one of the “great absentees” from this budget by the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon. One after the other, the oppositions have all criticized the CAQ for their lack of bite in this area.
In its budget, the government writes, however, that the rise in the cost of rents and the scarcity of supply on the private market make it “more difficult” to find affordable housing.
It undertakes to finance the construction of 1,000 new affordable units within five years and releases funds to complete the 3,500 projects in recent years that have not yet been built, an expenditure of $347 million.
However, these amounts are relatively modest compared to the expectations of the community. During the pre-budget consultations, the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) had requested the addition of 4,500 new social housing units per year.
Asked by a journalist about this apparent “gap”, the minister replied that he could not satisfy everyone and had to make “arbitrations”. He added that in four years, his government had allowed 15,000 units announced by the previous government to finally be built thanks to additional funding.
Because it often takes years before the social housing announced in the budget ends up coming out of the ground. Therefore, while waiting for the new social housing to be built, the Legault government is releasing 2,200 more rent supplement units over five years to help certain more vulnerable groups, including women victims of violence (100 units) and the homeless. (500 units). However, once again, the cities demanded much more, namely 13,400 additional affordable housing units per year throughout Quebec.