On April 20, 2017, the Ontario government introduced the Ontario's Fair Housing Plan, a 16-point plan to control real estate, address the demand for housing, increase supply, and protect buyers and renters.
The 16 measures in the plan include a legislation that would implement a new 15 % Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST), similar to the 15 % tax on foreign buyers already introduced in Vancouver last May.
Once legislation passes, the tax would be effective retroactively to April 21.
The measures are aimed at cooling down the hot housing market in the Greater Toronto Area, where prices were up 33 % from a year ago while condominium rents rose 8.3 % in the first quarter from a year ago.
Now that two major cities have been impacted by a Foreign Buyer Tax, only time will tell if investors will look to other Canadian cities to invest their funds.
