Canada Frees Up Public Lands to Tackle Housing Shortage

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(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government identified 56 federal properties, representing the size of about 2,000 hockey rinks, where hundreds of new affordable homes could be built to counter the scarcity of available land worsening a housing shortage.

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The properties will be featured in the new Canada Public Land Bank, the government said in a news release. Five properties in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa, listed on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s website, are already available for long-term leasing at a discounted value, and builders can submit their plans. The list is expected to grow regularly.

“We need to build more homes in Canada, and one of the largest costs in building is land,” Housing Minister Sean Fraser said in a statement. He’s leading a Canadian strategy attempting to build as much as 3.9 million homes by 2031. That would exceed the 3.5 million that the Smart Prosperity Institute think tank has estimated is needed.

The government said unlocking Canada’s public lands could help create as much as 250,000 new residential units. It’s setting up a C$500 million ($370 million) acquisition fund to buy land owned by other levels of government.

Fraser made the announcement on Sunday as a three-day cabinet retreat began in Halifax. Trudeau’s government has been plunging in the polls due to Canadians’ cost of living concerns, driven largely by high rents and home prices.