VANCOUVER — No matter what party or what leader form the next government, the BC Real Estate Association (BCREA) is urging politicians to repurpose the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) as a way to offset municipal development and amenity cost charges.
The federal government initially created the HAF to help municipalities with boosting housing supply while supporting affordable, diverse and climate-resilient communities. But the BCREA says the program was implemented without adequate structure or guidance as to how to best use the funds to achieve these goals.
New development has been slowed by substantial increases in development cost charges (DCCs) and amenity cost charges (ACCs) as individual municipalities strain to pay for infrastructure growth.
“The prevailing philosophy of ‘growth pays for growth’ is not working,” said Trevor Hargreaves, BCREA senior vp of policy research and government relations. “We have a dire need for new housing across the country, but development sector profitability has been hindered by increasing building costs, exacerbated by municipalities raising DCC and ACC fees. In the end, the homebuyer pays the price.”
The BCREA is asking the next federal government to expand and reorient the HAF to primarily provide financing for municipal infrastructure in communities that have shown a willingness to expand housing supply.
“Additionally, policy-makers should be encouraged to provide flexibility on the timing of DCC payments, allowing them to be collected at the end of a project rather than up front to ease the financial constraints on housing projects,” the association states. “Accelerator funding could also be used in these instances to carry related cost charges.”
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