{"id":15782,"date":"2018-09-21T01:00:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T05:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/?p=15782"},"modified":"2018-09-13T13:35:28","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T17:35:28","slug":"toronto-tech-boom-housing-affordability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoocasa.com\/blog\/toronto-tech-boom-housing-affordability\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from San Francisco: Will the Toronto Tech Boom Hurt Housing Affordability?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t need to work inside Toronto\u2019s startup scene to notice signs of a tech boom.<\/p>\n

Across the city, new companies, incubators, AI centers and global tech conferences aren\u2019t just suddenly appearing\u2014they\u2019re hiring in record numbers. In fact, Toronto\u2019s tech ecosystem is so hot right now<\/a>\u00a0that it created more jobs in 2017 than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined.<\/p>\n

Downtown, more than a third of office space is rented to tech firms. And that\u2019s as Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, lays the groundwork for a smart, connected neighbourhood along Toronto\u2019s east waterfront, and as Canada courts Amazon in a bid to set up the company\u2019s new North American headquarters in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Political tea leaves in Ottawa and at Queen\u2019s Park also point toward a tech-filled future. Ontario\u2019s Progressive Conservative government is declaring the province \u201copen for business\u201d with plans to reduce corporate taxes from 11.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Trudeau continues to double down on investments in tech and innovation virtually everywhere he goes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a more troubling indicator of Toronto\u2019s tech renaissance: housing affordability. Or, more precisely, the lack of it. The recent influx of tech workers into Toronto is bidding up prices in an already undersupplied housing market. Is \u201cthe six\u201d the next San Francisco, where an annual salary of $82,200 is considered \u201clow income\u201d by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and where median home prices shot up by a record $205,000 in the first half of 2018?<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s housing market is already ranked the 4th<\/sup>least affordable<\/a>\u00a0in North America. If the city is going to harness global tech\u2019s full economic potential\u2014making room for the Amazons of the world without displacing the city\u2019s middle class denizens\u2014housing affordability must be a top priority. Here\u2019s what experts say Toronto must do to support a thriving middle class and avoid a housing market like San Francisco\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Lift Zoning Restrictions<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

\"James
James McKellar, director of the Brookfield Centre in Real Estate and Infrastructure at York University’s Schulich School of Business<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto, unlike mountainous, sea bound Vancouver, isn\u2019t short on land. Restrictive zoning rules are what drive developers to erect high rises in the city\u2019s downtown core and drive low-density sprawl in the outer suburbs. But what about the inner suburbs?<\/p>\n

\u201cHere is a city protecting\u00a0old neighbourhoods for whatever reason and it’s shutting out all of the people that we need to drive our economy,\u201d says James McKellar, director of the\u00a0Brookfield Centre in Real Estate and Infrastructure at York University’s Schulich\u00a0School of Business.<\/p>\n

McKellar says Toronto should allow more development in the inner suburbs to help absorb the influx of tech talent. This might seem counterintuitive, but building more houses in the outer suburbs is exactly the opposite of what a growing global city needs.<\/p>\n

Build More Housing People Can Afford<\/h2>\n
\"Jennifer
Jennifer Keesmaat was the Chief City Planner of Toronto from 2012 to 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Build more houses you say? Obvious as this solution may seem, San Francisco and New York have struggled for years to build affordable housing despite having the money and political will to do so. Jennifer Keesmaat, former chief city planner of Toronto, proposes building units aimed at people with median household incomes between $40,000 to $100,000. \u201cThese are teachers, nurses, journalists and web designers who live in the city and who in today\u2019s market, would never be able to afford a house, but are critical to the ecosystem of the economy,\u201d says Keesmaat.<\/p>\n

To spur development of affordable housing\u2014typically a low-margin business for property developers\u2014the city and province must continue to provide incentives like tax breaks, reduced fees and quick approval times to meet growing demand and ensure a place for Toronto\u2019s growing tech talent. But first, governments in Toronto, Queen\u2019s Park and Ottawa must coordinate on a clear strategy.<\/p>\n

Get Smart on Funding<\/h2>\n
\"Richard
Richard Florida is an American urban studies theorist focusing on social and economic theory. He is currently a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Creative class hero Richard Florida understands better than most how critical affordable housing is to Toronto\u2019s economic success. He believes the city should build more affordable housing, especially around transit, by repurposing existing land for new affordable rental units.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal rental financing policies can be changed to end subsidizing the construction of luxury rentals in favour of units the middle-class can afford,\u201d says Florida. He adds that funds from the National Housing Strategy<\/a>\u00a0should be dedicated to building affordable housing on a continuous basis to keep up with demand, instead of planning construction in 25-year increments.<\/p>\n

As high-cost cities around the world compete for tech talent, one thing should become abundantly clear: creating affordable housing isn\u2019t just a moral imperative, but a competitive advantage. Which is why, alongside now familiar arguments about how to \u201cwin the war on talent\u201d, housing deserves a seat at the table. Solving the city\u2019s housing woes while attracting and growing global tech businesses? Now there\u2019s a story potential investors can\u2019t ignore.<\/p>\n

Robert Furtado is the founder and CEO of <\/em>Course Compare<\/em><\/a>, Canada\u2019s online marketplace for education. <\/em>If you\u2019re interested in learning in-demand digital skills, you can explore Canada\u2019s top-rated <\/em>web development courses<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>data science courses<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>digital marketing courses<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>UX\/UI design courses<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>product management courses<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and more at CourseCompare.ca.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t need to work inside Toronto\u2019s startup scene to notice signs of a tech boom. Across the city, new companies, incubators, AI centers and global tech conferences aren\u2019t just suddenly appearing\u2014they\u2019re hiring in record numbers. In fact, Toronto\u2019s tech ecosystem is so hot right now\u00a0that it created more jobs in 2017 than the San […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":15787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-posts","category-toronto-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"\nWill the Toronto Tech Boom Hurt Housing Affordability? | Zoocasa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Will the Toronto tech boom hurt housing affordability? 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