As you may have been aware, the federal government has set up a housing accelerator fund. With the money allocated to the fund, they are awarding it to municipalities that update their regulations and by-laws to allow them to reach their housing targets.
Windsor recently had their application for monies from the housing accelerator fund rejected primarily due to not allowing four units as of right on all low density urban residential properties.
Strong Mayor Powers used in Ajax
This refusal denied Windsor 70 million dollars in funding that it was looking to receive. Where this is interesting is that Windsor’s proposal met it’s intensification targets, however they were not willing to adjust from as of-right three units to four.
Windsor was informed that the CMHC and the federal government met in November 2023 to discuss the housing accelerator fund. In the meeting the federal government recommended four units as of right to receive funding, even though bill 23 mandated three units as of right in low density residential zones. This is inline with the Housing Affordability Task Force recommendations from February of 2022 of needing to remove exclusionary zoning in residential areas as one of the key changes required in order to meet our housing needs.
If this is true, and this will be a requirement for funding, we are going to see many more municipalities follow suit.
Building code changes are also expected to be coming into play for smaller multifamily properties as well. Currently anything 3-units and above is classified as an apartment building according to the building code, and they have to be designed to meet apartment building standards. The changes, if implemented are expected to help eliminate some of the design elements required in larger buildings that make building smaller apartment buildings less feasible.
If we see these zoning changes, building code changes, along with interest rate declines in the near future. We are going to see significant investment activity coming back in our local markets.
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