Mortgage 101 – “What is going on in Nova Scotia?” | May 2022 Part 3

In this episode of Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins and Todd Veinotte, as heard on CityNews 95.7 and CityNews 101.1, the guys talk about everything going on in the Nova Scotia housing market. From the proposed additional non-resident property tax, the building moratorium from 20 years ago, to heritage properties, Clinton and Todd will catch you up with the hot topics right now.

Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins & Todd Veinotte: “What is going on in Nova Scotia?”

Don’t feel like watching the video? Check out the transcript below.

Transcript:

Nova Scotia additional non-resident property tax

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:00:07] All right, let’s talk about a controversial story here in the province of Nova Scotia: This transfer tax and this non-resident tax, which was rolled out by the Houston government. And I will say I went on the record immediately denouncing this. I thought it was a cash grab, a poor idea and ridiculous to think it would free up housing for Nova Scotians. Thoughts? What do you think?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:27:18] You know what? During our last show, I commented and said, these houses are not houses for a first-time home buyer. I can tell you that right now, in most cases. I think a lot of the homes that maybe were, targeted, I will say are one million plus dollar assessment properties in Lunenburg County, specifically. A lot of these homes are not occupied year-round. They are cottages. And in some cases, some of these homes, you know, are only seasonal. Right? I think the one thing that the government really missed the mark on this piece and just to summarise what it was, it was a 2 per cent property tax, I guess, increase.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:19:29] Above and beyond.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:20:24] Over and above the property taxes. So for example, if you had a $1,000,000 assessment, the property taxes would be an additional $20,000. It was basically enticing these non Nova Scotians to sell. And the one thing that we kind of forget here in the province is when people come to the province and enjoy these summer homes, they’re bringing their tax dollars and they’re spending them here. After-tax dollars. Right? And I think that was kind of the big motivator to roll this back. And I think there were some unintended consequences.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:57:28] Yeah. Like it pissed a lot of people off.

These homes are not for first-time home buyers

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:01:21] I think it definitely aggravated a lot of people. I can tell you that we received a lot of calls from all over the country to say “What is going on in Nova Scotia!?”

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:10:09] Really? You received a lot of calls from people all over the place?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:12:19] Calls, emails, and they’re like, that’s all people are talking about. So, you know, they come to Clinton, a couple of people know me, just for my opinion. And I said you know what? I can’t comment on what the government did. I don’t necessarily think it’s going to fix things for first-time home buyers. And obviously, you know, they got that feedback and they rolled it back.

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:42:19] You know what surprised me, I think more than anything, were how many people who have absolutely none of these properties. And typically this would be a cohort of people that some in the public might go, oh, wealthy cottage owners, camp owners, whatever, and say, who cares? Looks good on you. But that didn’t happen. People, for the most part, regular.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:08:03] Working class people.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:08:28] Working class people recognize this for what it was: Un Nova Scotian, un Canadian and unfair and not going to address the problem.

Building moratorium from 20 years ago is a huge issue

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:18:08] You know, the problem really is a hangover of what happened here in HRM at least the Halifax Regional Municipality. We’re talking about a hangover from 20 years ago. We had a moratorium on building here in the late nineties and early 2000s. And now we’re paying the piper, Todd. We can’t fast track enough properties, but there was some good news over the last couple of weeks that the municipality is fast tracking, I think 20,000 building lots. So we’re certainly having some lots that are going to come online very soon and that’s going to take some time.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:49:20] I had a question about that, though. The province wants to build some houses. They want to free up some areas and they’ve designated some key areas. But some of those areas, from what I can gather, there are concerns about the ecology of the area? Rights, whatever it might be. In the end, you need real estate, you need land in order to develop. And this is the challenge, though, is it not? You can’t have both. You can’t have new housing stock and development and not unfortunately impact habitat.

Nova Scotia needs more real estate

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:26:11] Yeah, there’s always going to be winners and losers in everything. And, you know, obviously, we’re very environmentally sensitive here in Nova Scotia. We have a lot of great natural resources, and I think that’s one of these things that makes Nova Scotia great, Todd. You know, we have a beautiful coastline. We have the highest tides in the world on the Bay of Fundy. But there also needs to be development.

You know, we have a relatively small province with just over a million residents here. And for us to be economically sustainable going forward, we need a higher population. That is reality. We have a lot of land here, which is positive. We have a lot of room to grow and I think that we need to densify Halifax again. I’ll make up a word. We need to bring the population to the core. I think the urban sprawl obviously is very costly for municipalities when we’re talking about things like water, transportation, policing, fire services.

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:23:04] And to the environment.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:24:00] And to the environment. So I think bringing more density into the core could be positive. And I think that we have huge swaths of land that can be developed into subdivisions and maybe bedroom communities. That is going to have an environmental impact.

But we have a lot of land here, and I think what the province really needs to do to fast track this with municipalities is to figure out, you know, what are these areas that will have the least impact and environmentally, but the highest impact to that social good in terms of the housing and the housing here for Nova Scotians and the people that want to live and work in Nova Scotia.

What are the concerns around heritage properties?

Todd Veinotte: [00:06:05:20] There are some concerns, though, with the heritage aspect of a lot of parts of the city, which would make way for some of this densification to use your term. And I think that’s a legitimate part of it, or should be a legitimate component to the conversation. What do you think?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:06:19:15] I, you know, I agree. We have a very old city here. You know, we’re talking like 400 years people have been living in Halifax. You know, we have Citadel Hill that will never be developed and is part of Parks Canada. And, you know, that’s a big piece of our heritage is we can look from many areas around Halifax and see Citadel Hill. That was planned on purpose. And that’s why we don’t necessarily have the high rises that other big cities have.

We are a small city, but we have a lot of resources here, Todd, and there might not be a lot of building lots on the peninsula or around Halifax, but there certainly are areas that we can build up and we’re seeing some of that. You know, there was a section of homes that were that are being demolished right now along one of the main corridors here coming into the city along Robie Street. And some of the residents were wild that these homes were being torn down, not that they had a lot of heritage significance.

You know, you look anywhere around Halifax and you can find 100 year old home. They’re everywhere. You know, there certainly are some homes that are pre explosion, but there’s a lot of homes that were built right after the explosion. And they’re not that heritage you know, specific. There’s lots of these homes available and around. And a lot of this real estate that’s being torn down is way less than prime.

You know, some of the stuff is in pretty rough shape. And, you know, along these main drags and, you know, Robie Street is what we’re talking about for our listeners. You know, there’s nothing that’s really heritage specific on Robie Street or really that nice to look at. Let’s be honest.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:09:03] A lot of those side-by-side duplex-type things.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:11:03] Yeah, exactly. And I think like over the years, obviously, you know, a lot of that was used for rental stock.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:15:28] What a location, though, across from the commons and all that stuff.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:19:20] Just imagine if that was just like a row of high rise, mid-rise buildings. That’s what we need. Because guess what? Transportation is available. The walking score is very good and you are right beside a main park of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Not everyone can afford $2,000 a month rent

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:36:21] But then we’re getting into the affordable housing question. Right? What is affordable? Right? And this is this is an issue. We’ve got people.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:44:05] That’s a hard one.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:45:00] It’s a hard one. Right. Because not everybody can afford $2,000 a month for rent and that’s what a one bedroom would be: $2,000. That’s what we’d be looking at right there.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:54:12] Yeah. And I think what’s happening now with this affordable housing situation, we don’t have enough. We don’t have enough of any type of housing, Todd. Affordable, regular rentals, homes to buy, multi-units, condos. We don’t have enough of any type of housing stock, so all types of housing stock needs to be increased. And I suspect, now, obviously, I’m not an economist or a city planner or any of these things, but I think if we can get any type of real estate on the go, there’s probably going to be a positive vortex that’s going to open up potentially other maybe more affordable units and rentals.

Todd Veinotte: [00:09:37:19] We’ve got another segment to go, and I want to know what you want to talk about. I want you to give us a tease what’s coming up in the next segment.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:09:43:08] You know, alternative lending is certainly a very hot topic here in Halifax and I know really across the country. So we’re going to talk a little bit about alternative lending and how that works, and how that works for a purchase. And we’ll dig a little bit deeper into refinance, believe it or not, right now, normally the spring market is the hottest purchase market, but we’re rolling into a lot of refinances as well.

Todd Veinotte: [00:10:04:20] Okay, Mortgage 101: Your Guide to Homeownership. We’ll be right back.

If you have any questions, get in touch with us at Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team! You can call us at (902) 482-2770 or contact us here.

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