I would say that the biggest challenge right now is the cost of construction. We've seen the price of resale homes fall but, for the most part, the cost of construction hasn't. The materials to build a home haven't gotten any cheaper. In fact, with geopolitical challenges, some of those have gone up. We have seen some land price decreases in certain markets but, overall, it's tough for builders to build something to compete with the resale market.
I think where the federal government can be of most immediate help is doing what they've actually already done on HST. Expanding that to the provinces takes anywhere from five per cent to about 15% off the cost of the new home, depending on the province. Because the HST applies only to new homes, it helps them become cost competitive.
Over the long run, I think you are, then, looking at working with municipalities on issues like development charges and, again, with the Ontario agreement. I think it could be just de-risking. One of the biggest challenges builders and developers have right now, particularly in high-rise, is that they don't know the future of the federal government's immigration policies. When I talk to builders and developers in high-rise, the ones who are going to continue to build right now are the ones who are making a bet that immigration numbers will go up in the future, and the ones who are on the sidelines are thinking that the demand's not going to be there.
It's being able to give industry a 10-year timeline instead of what we have now, which ends in 2027, and nobody's really sure how many homes they're going to need in the future, because we don't know how fast the population will grow.