528, 533, 550 Lancaster St W | 10, 12, 18, 30, 30 fl | U/C

[jeffster]

The reality is that the current construction strategy is not working: no matter how many units are built, the price of accommodation does not come down.  This is not limited to Waterloo Region; one only needs to look to Toronto. If anything, the more units that have been built in Toronto, the faster the demand for affordable housing has grown.

I think we can all agree the current strategy isn't working. However, describing the current strategy as "no matter how many units are built" is a grave mischaracterization. The number of units per capita has been steadily falling, meaning every unit has ever more people competing over it.

The problem here is you're mixing up "number of units" and "number of units per capita". Number of units has been going up, but units per capita is going down. Price is determined by units per capita, as after all its the law of supply and demand, not the law of supply.

We are, on a per-capita basis, reducing the housing supply. When you look at it like that, it's no surprise that everything has gone to shit. People here are arguing that maybe we should increase the per-capita housing supply, which is something that hasn't happened in 20 years.

To add to this: families are smaller than they used to be, so larger population but smaller family units means we need that much more housing units. Older people are living longer, staying in their homes longer, which means that housing isn't coming on the market as quickly as it once did. So building unit on a per-capita isn't enough either, as we need to realize that we physically need more homes to allow these smaller households.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-6...08-eng.htm

We literally need 10's of thousands of units built just in Waterloo Region to satisfy the need. If we don't do it, then housing will continue to get more expensive.

It's interesting to see people complaining about 'us' becoming Toronto (like it's worse than cancer) but totally ignoring two facts, we will never be like Toronto any time soon, and we desperately need thousands of units.

We're short thousands of units, and that won't decrease at our current build rate.