As we announced in our September 2023 newspaper, the Trudeau government will reimburse the GST for residential rental properties. 1)
“This legislation will reduce the GST residential rental property rebate from 36 per cent to 100 per cent and remove the thresholds for phasing out the GST rebate for rental housing projects. This enhanced rebate will apply to projects whose construction begins on or after September 14, 2023 and no later than December 31, 2030, and ends no later than December 31, 2035.”
For the Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ), this measure was very good news for Québec’s rental housing stock.
Now, the Government of Québec has announced that it wants to match the Federal Government’s bid and it will add $900 million for the construction of social and affordable housing over the next 5 years.
Finance Minister Eric Girard is expected to confirm this in his economic update expected in November. (2)
However, this news was overshadowed by an article in La Presse(3) which stated that a developer pays an average of $34,000 more to build a condo because of all the expenses related to the fees of cities and various organizations in Montreal such as the STM or the REM that claim additional costs to be able to build.
The Association des Propriétaires du Québec (APQ) has already taken a position against these fees, regardless of their origin, which only increase construction costs and therefore a surplus attributable to the rent has to be determined.
These royalties were already an initiative and a questionable taxation, but when two levels of government decide to reduce their revenues and/or increase their financial assistance, it seems inconsistent to us that the latter continue to exist.
In order to enable growth to the real estate par, it is together, with common actions and a clear joint vision that the par will grow. It is now up to municipalities and these organizations to question the obstacles that remain and to act accordingly by removing them.
(1) https://www.apq.org/journal/editions/septembre-2023/
(2) https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2023-10-05/construction-de-logements/quebec-va-egaler-la-mise-d-ottawa.php
(3) https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/marche-immobilier/2023-10-05/regard-sur-l-immobilier/les-redevances-font-grimper-le-prix-des-condos-de-34-000.php