Focus on housing expected as B.C. promises affordability measures in Budget 2024

The B.C. finance minister isn’t revealing much ahead of Thursday’s provincial budget, but she is promising measures to help with affordability.

As was hinted in the throne speech Tuesday, an expert says housing will be a major focus in the 2024 fiscal plan.

For Tom Davidoff, an associate professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, the biggest stand out to him is the recently announced BC Builds program.

“You know, it’s good to see on the supply side. On the demand side, I’d love to see some further tax reform. We know there’s lots and lots of people who own super expensive property and pay almost no income tax. That’s a source of potential revenue, as well as maybe freeing up some housing supply from the local workforce,” he told CityNews Wednesday.

Despite his wish, Davidoff doesn’t expect much movement on that in this budget. However, he says some kind of a flipping tax and support for first-time home owners is likely going to make it in.

The budget comes after the government introduced several pieces of housing legislation last year, with BC Builds unveiled last week.

“Some of the best things in life are free, so the most important work on housing that the province has done this year, I don’t think very much goes into the budget but rather is the requirement that municipalities a, build more, but b, also relax their zoning regulations so that multi-family housing can be built anywhere instead of just a tiny minority of lots,” Davidoff explained.

The funding that passes through BC Builds will play nicely with the laws already passed, with Davidoff adding the good news for the latest program is that it’s in the best interest of participating municipalities to get the projects done quickly.

With promises to help working-class British Columbians with affordability at the centre of all budget previews, Davidoff says rebates that come from the B.C. government can help. But support needs to go further.

“I think the most important way, other than adding more supply, that government can improve affordability for people with moderate and low incomes, is to transfer income from homeowners or affluent people in the workforce better through property taxes to renters, because some people — even if lots and lots of market housing gets built — just aren’t going to have the incomes to support living here,” he said.

“If we want people who work jobs that may be very important but don’t pay particularly well to be able to live here, they’re going to need income supports. Building social-housing units, the scale required to provide an entitlement to live here is just way beyond what government can commit to, realistically.”

With B.C. already passing massive changes to zoning regulations, Davidoff hopes to see additional transit funding to complement those moves and support increased density.

The 2024 budget will be the last before the next provincial election, which is slated for Oct. 19.

Davidoff says it would be no surprise if the BC NDP focuses on the more “popular” moves in this budget, like more spending and less taxing. However, that remains to be seen.

“I think our economy’s been surprisingly strong, given what we’ve gone through. Hopefully, we’re out of inflation, rates can come down, and we don’t have a recession. I think we’re okay for budget. This government hasn’t been inclined to go bananas and get us too deep into deficit, despite the difficulties they faced. But we’ll see what they come up with this year,” he said.

Stay with CityNews for the latest on Thursday, with full budget coverage on-air and online.