CUR's Senior Research Fellow Frank Clayton, in a report released on July 14 by the C.D. Howe Institute, synthesizes more than a decade of research by the Centre for Urban Research and Land Development (CUR) into the implications of the land use planning system on housing affordability in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).
The report argues that planning policies have become increasingly disconnected from consumer preferences, limiting the supply of preferred ground-related housing and worsening affordability. He argues policymakers should focus not only on how much housing is built, but also on building the kinds of homes people actually want.
The report also challenges the ideas that housing demand can be met simply by relying on seniors to downsize, by providing more missing-middle housing options in existing neighbourhoods, or by increasing densities adjacent to transit stations.
As a solution, the report recommends increasing the supply of the housing homebuyers prefer while lowering the cost of suitable alternatives to traditional single-detached subdivisions. This includes maintaining an ample supply of serviced greenfield land, reducing government-imposed development costs, and encouraging greenfield communities that combine townhouses, low-rise apartments, and smaller-lot single-detached homes.
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