Finally, what appears to be some good news out of Manitoba. Winnipeg in particular needs to accommodate population growth for the first time in a long time. Modernizing the approval process for subdivisions could help meet that demand. Additionally, it should hopefully help take some pressure off of the rental market in Winnipeg, which has a vacancy rate of less than one percent.
Housing Affordability
Toward More Prosperous Cities: Cities should fight poverty, not increase it
Beyond the rule of law and security, the most important public policy objectives should be to achieve wide-spread affluence and eradicate poverty. Cities, urban policy, and urban transport are means to facilitate this objective, not ends themselves.
Sydney to Abandon Radical Urban Containment Policy
The New South Wales government has proposed a new Metropolitan Strategy for the Sydney area which would significantly weaken the urban containment policy (also called urban consolidation, smart growth, livability, growth management, densification, etc.) that has driven if house prices to among the highest in the affluent New World (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) relative to household incomes.
170,000 New Homes for Sydney
The largest release of housing lots in 20 years will bring home ownership within reach for thousands of young families, the state government says. Up to 171,000 new homes will be built across 31 new and existing suburbs, alongside land for new jobs, shops, schools and transport.
Featured News
Raw-Milk Prohibition Reveals Policy Backwardness
Prohibitionists Dig In Heels for Supply Management, Ignore U.S. Success There is a legal way to consume raw milk in Canada: buy it in the United States and bring it home. Of the 13 states bordering Canada, 12 have legal raw milk. More than 40 have it legal in some...
The Pawlowski Decision
In the Alberta Health Services v. Artur Pawlowski and Dawid Pawlowski decision last September, a Court of Queen’s Bench justice found the two brothers in contempt of court. The Pawlowski brothers openly challenged health ordinances and court orders and did not deny...
New York’s Self-Destruction: Rent Control
Rent control helps destroy New York, harming the poor and subsidizing the middle class..
Cheap houses? Not here
Manitoba housing are less affordable because incomes are lower than those in higher priced markets..
Rent Control Subsidizes Rich Manhattanites
If rental prices were completely deregulated, the median monthly rent of subsidized housing would increase by only $8 due to the expansion of the unregulated market.
Cracking the Code
New Jersey is unleashing the older inner city by relaxing building codes
Ontario Rent Control Lessons
Reader feedback on the damage caused by rent control in Ontario
Winnipeg’s Housing Bust
Despite the political spin that low house prices are an advantage, Winnipeg’s low house prices are one more symptom of Manitoba’s relative lack of economic growth.
Fixing Winnipeg’s Downtown
This December 2002 paper explores “big-picture” policy reforms to revitalize Winnipeg’s high potential downtown. It kicks off the Frontier Centre’s Winnipeg Policy Blueprint Project.
Lift Rent Control to Benefit Low Income Renters
The interaction between two public policies in Winnipeg - its own high property taxes and the Province of Manitoba's rent control regime - has created a number of unexpected ripples, like low property values. Removing the rent laws would help lower the overall tax...
How Rent Control Killed Affordable Housing in Winnipeg
Senior Policy Analyst Dennis Owens discusses how rent control hurts the poor