Friday’s throne speech from the provincial NDP re-iterated many promises from the spring election campaign.
However, details on new and affordable housing remained vague.
The NDP promised a comprehensive housing strategy that would increase supply and examine ways to curb speculation, but exactly how the government would go about it is still not known.
SFU political scientist David Moscrop says it’s likely the government is still figuring it out, and it could take a while.
“The BC Liberals had 16 years to try to figure out the housing market and didn’t. The NDP is going to take more than a few months. I would say these are just early moves, and the long term strategy will continue to evolve as months and even years go by.”
Moscrop says it’s better the government get it right the first time.
“You want things to be done appropriately, you want things to be done carefully. You don’t want a housing market to collapse or tank. The cost of doing something wrong because you’ve done it quickly is so high, that it’s much better to be patient and give the government a chance to figure what it’s doing, and what the best approach is.”
“It’s a delicate and fraught policy area,” he adds, “because nobody wants to tank the housing market. While there’s a sense of urgency around meaning to address it, you don’t want to move too fast and have the whole thing collapse on you. ”
One housing-related pledge was to close fixed-term lease loopholes, to put the brakes on unfair rent increases.
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