Even if producing a record supply of housing units could guarantee solving the affordability issue, actually building that much housing with viable density comes with a steep price tag. Even advocates of mass housing admit as much. If we don’t go after the land value itself, we are essentially trying to deflate a balloon by blowing on it.
I liked that bit, but the argument that most resonated with me is that property taxes disincentivize development, but land value taxes encourage density.
Rosedale, the wealthy single-family-homes community with massive lots close to downtown Toronto, should not exist. It’s insane. A single person should not reasonably be able to afford to own an acre of land close to an urban core. That whole neighbourhood wouldn’t exist if land value taxes had slowly increased over the last century.
I think we need a 10-20 year plan to shift from property taxes to land-value taxes, at maybe 5% a year. Give the market enough time to respond, to buy up and develop the land.
Throw in minimum mixed zoning requirements to get commercial spaces embedded in the new communities, too, while you’re at it, so we can actually get some walkability.