More Canadian developers are slowing their pace of building or nixing projects completely. Here’s what you need to know about your rights if you bought a pre-sale home.
My biggest complaint, as someone who’s been working in the trades in Ontario since 2010, is that the amount of money that houses are worth has gone up like 400%, but the pay for the actual workers has barely gone up at all.
I remember when I first started working in a subdivision, there were billboards up saying you could get the cheapest base model houses for $200k. Those houses now are probably worth almost $800k, and the guys working in the houses probably make an extra couple bucks an hour compared to when those houses were selling for $200k.
So the developers are making huge money, the real estate agents are making huge money, the landlords and people who can afford these properties are making huge money too. But the people who actually build the houses make fuck all.
I fucking hate this world, all of us working class people need a general strike like right now.
Fuck the rich, fuck politicians, and fuck Doug Ford in particular
I mean, it’s the price of land that went up. The house will always cost the same to build. It still sucks that the person owning that land and the one making commission selling it is making bank, but changes in housing prices (especially the ones that are already built and just sitting there) won’t usually translate into higher construction salaries.
The house will always cost the same to build.
yes largely its the price of land but lumber prices are insane. 1 sheet of OSB is like 50 bucks. 2x6x12 is 15. not to mention copper prices for all the wiring
I’m in Alberta, and we actually got a pair of 10% reductions to builders pay rates in 2018, meaning we’re earning 20% less now. Add in the sporadic work the last few years, and I’m having trouble keeping the build paid. We need a general strike.
and fuck Doug Ford in particular
Goes without saying, but in fairness, this one is actually a federal issue.
Like you point out, it is the land values that have increased, not the structure cost. Why? Because dairy and poultry farmers, propped up by an old-timey socialist solution to supporting agriculture – which, in modern times, has pushed beyond just supporting agriculture and has transformed them into being the richest Canadians – are buying up all the farmland they can get their hands on at hyper-inflated prices. If you get away from the productive farmland, into the rocky expanses of Canada, housing has remained quite cheap.
Thing is, it used to be that cities could buy up farmland for practically nothing, thus allowing new housing to be cheap, but those days are over (arguably for the better, as farmland is important, but that comes with a cost). They have to now be able to outspend the diary/poultry producers for that land, which is no easy feat. Even if the urban sprawl ultimately wins, it has to pay more than it historically would have when farmers were poor and unable to drive prices up in competition. And that is cost that you, the homeowner, ultimately have to burden.
I’ll note that only Mad Max is willing to do anything about it. Take from that what you will.
I don’t know how long it’s been the case, but in Canada if you’re an individual consumer you don’t have any rights against the construction industry.
Hire a contractor and they do a shit job? Sorry, you have to let them finish or pay them out, you don’t have the right to fire them unless a person gets seriously injured by their work. They’re allowed to fix their work indefinitely.
It doesn’t matter what your contract says, doesn’t matter that they fail to meet the minimum standards outlined in it. If you do try to fire them they just put a lien on your house without anything further than their word and $30. And careful posting a review online, you can get sued for defamation over that, even if it’s the truth (look it up, it’s a thing).
Got stiffed by a contractor after your prepayment? Too bad, they changed their name so now they don’t exist. That was the old company and they’re bankrupt, the new one was their creditor and acquired all their assets. Oh, and if they fail to pay their subcontractors you’re personally liable.
Bought a prebuild? Sorry, the contractor can just walk away anytime and resell the unit if the value increases. Good luck on your deposit. I have no idea why they can just relist the properties a couple months later but I guess they can.
And don’t get me started on the “cash discount” aka “we don’t pay taxes and don’t get audited”.
The construction industry in this country get treated better than royalty. Can’t speak ill of them, can’t go after them legally, and it’s all tax free!
Hm I don’t much about the subject matter, but this can’t possibly be right can it?
Frequent enough to be well known; condo owners that bought prior to them being built were told they’d need to pay an extra $X because the builder could get more for them after they were built (housing prices were more)
It is also fairly common for a contractor to relist if there’s a complaint against their company
The rest I am unsure of but they sound plausible, there is too much need for skilled trades because boomers a lot of time refused to grant people working under them apprenticeships, instead just using them as labourers that way they could charge more and not be replaced.
You would think it can’t be right until you get burned and find out.
Builders stop building during a lack of building crisis. Totally normal, nothing to see here folks. /s
We were building so little already, I can’t believe that the already pathetic housing starts are getting reduced by 20%. The government should just step in with non-market housing already.
The canadian birth rate is below replacement. This housing crisis is only because the government is importing 1.1 million people every year, year after year.
Yes, because capitalist economies require a continuously growing workforce or it falls over.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Limit immigration, and companies will adapt
They won’t though. Our financial system judges companies on being more-profitable than they were last year, and being more more-profitable than other companies. It’s not about making a living, it’s about infinite growth.
that is what is twisted.
a company that make ~20million year after year is considered a failure in the ethos of capitalism.
I run a small business that is non-profit. I am constantly fighting people who are screaming or shaming me we need to grow or what we are doing is not worthwhile… it’s complete insanity how internalized the capitalism/stock market is for most people. growth at any cost. if we help 500 people one year, and 500 people the next, it’s ‘not doing enough’. we have to help 700 people the next year, and so on and so on. hire more people! do more event! etc etc. it’s unsustainable.
If you are losing money in Canada then adapting is leaving