The city’s shortage of housing — affordable and otherwise — has everything but a single or simple cause.
Karen Hansen, co-owner of Pratt Homes, which is a major Barrie builder, knows that too well.
“I think the largest challenge the industry faces right now is affordability,” she told BarrieToday. “The development charges (DCs) at the city of Barrie went up by a lot.
“Trades and suppliers are under heavy demand with a busy, busy market, forcing prices higher and higher and higher," Hansen added. “There’s a lack of supply of land.”
The Barrie and District Association of Realtors (BDAR), in its report for May 2024, said the average home sale price was $842,615, which is a decline of 3.2 per cent, year over year, from May 2023.
And development charges add to that cost every time city council increases DCs, although there is a reason.
DCs are designed to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial, institutional) growth within a municipality from developers, so that existing residents don’t have to foot the bill.
But the cost of DCs undoubtedly gets passed on to homebuyers.
Hansen said things are looking up for homebuilders, however.
Inflation has now come into better balance, for example, and the provincial government is trying to open up more land availability, she said. This creates more competition among builders and more choices for buyers.
“We’re hopeful that this temporary slowdown in the (housing) market has brought some costs into balance to, if not lower home prices, at least stabilize home prices, and create more options for buyers,” Hansen said.
Hansen says Pratt Homes has been watching markers in the housing industry, to see where the appetite is from buyers.
“We’ve seen some recent spring excitement for low-rise products that we are launching ... and that will really be our first test in a while as to what the appetite is for new homes in Barrie,” she said of single-family homes and townhouses.
“That’s the first new site we’ve launched in over a year, at the corner of Mapleview and Yonge, in a quiet little enclave development there.”
Hansen said homebuilders play a limited role in affordable housing.
“To reach the municipality’s definition of affordable housing is very, very difficult,” she said. “So the building industry is taking our most aggressive approach to try to bring affordability to homeowners.
“We call it more affordable housing. Or attainable housing,” Hansen added. “To meet the provincial definition and municipal definitions is very difficult.”
Affordable housing is a range of housing types allowing families and individuals, of all income levels, to find suitable places to live without spending a disproportionate percentage of their income on housing. Affordable housing can include ownership, rental or subsidized housing.
The city defines affordable rental housing as a unit for which the rent doesn’t exceed 30 per cent of the gross annual household income for low- to moderate-income households. That income is based upon the most recent Canada Census statistics for Barrie, which is updated every five years.
For many homebuilders, though, Hansen said that’s a bridge too far.
“Whether or not that meets the city’s definition of affordable housing is always something that we look into, but the city definition is very hard to meet,” she said.
