Toronto Real Estate Board Looks Forward to Working with New City of Toronto Budget Chief on Phase-Out of Land Transfer Tax
Posted by: Toronto Real Estate Admin / Category: Toronto Realtor
Toronto Real Estate Board Looks Forward to Working with New City of Toronto Budget Chief on Phase-Out of Land Transfer Tax
TORONTO, February 12, 2013 – On behalf of its over 36,000 REALTOR® Members, the Toronto Real Estate
Board (TREB) congratulates Councillor Frank Di Giorgio on his appointment as
Chair of the City of Toronto’s Budget Committee. TREB looks forward to working with Councillor
Di Giorgio in this critical position as he moves the City’s agenda forward,
especially with regard to fulfilling Mayor Ford’s strong commitment to begin
phasing out the Land Transfer Tax.
“We applaud Councillor Di
Giorgio for his commitment to the City. The role of Budget Chief is critical to the success of our City. We look forward to working with Councillor Di
Giorgio, in his new role, as he works to address the many important budget
issues facing our City, especially the negative impacts of the Toronto Land
Transfer Tax,” said Ms. Hannah.
TREB recently released the
results of public opinion polling, conducted by Ipsos Reid, which found:
·
Nearly seven in ten
Torontonians, 68 per cent, support plans to eliminate the Toronto Land Transfer
Tax. This is up from 65 per cent one
year ago.
·
77 per cent of GTA
residents planning to purchase a home in the next two years are more likely to
purchase outside Toronto specifically to avoid paying the Toronto Land Transfer
Tax.
·
72 per cent oppose
municipal land transfer taxes even if this tax was dedicated for spending on
transit and infrastructure.
·
76 per cent of
Torontonians who recently paid the LTT feel that they have received little or
no added value in municipal services for the amount of LTT that they paid.
“For the buyer of an
average detached home in Toronto, the municipal land transfer tax costs about
$10,000. It is unfair to expect people like down-sizing seniors, or young
growing families who need more space, to pay so much more than their fair
share,” said Ms. Hannah.
Research has proven that
municipal land transfer taxes have a negative impact on home sales. The C.D.
Howe Institute recently released an analysis of the Toronto Land Transfer Tax,
which shows that this tax has hurt Toronto’s economy by dampening home sales by
16 per cent. In addition, the Ipsos Reid
poll found that 25 per cent of the people who recently purchased a home in
Toronto would have spent their land transfer tax money on furnishings or
appliances, if they had not had to give it to the City, and 21 per cent would
have spent it on renovations.
“Housing sales create jobs
because when people move they spend money on things like renovations, movers,
appliances, and furnishings. In fact,
studies have shown that every resale housing transaction results in over
$40,000 of spin-off spending. Every housing sale that is lost as a result of
the Toronto land transfer tax risks Toronto jobs,” said Ms. Hannah.
The noted
poll results are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted between
November 24th and 29th, 2012, on behalf of the Toronto
Real Estate Board. For this survey a sample of 1,112 residents of the GTA from
Ipsos’ Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was
then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample’s
composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and
to provide results approximate the sample universe. The precision of
Ipsos online polls are measured using a credibility interval. In this
case, the poll is accurate to within +/- 3.4 percentage points of all residents
in the GTA region. The credibility interval will be larger for
sub-groupings of this population. All sample surveys and polls may be
subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage
error, and measurement error.
For information about Buyer Representation Agreements
(BRA) visit www.BRAFirst.ca
For Media/Public Inquiries: Mary Gallagher, Senior
Manager Media Relations.
Toronto
Real Estate Board 1400 Don Mills Road Toronto, ON M3B 3N1, Office: (416)
443-8158, Email:maryg@trebnet.com
Greater Toronto REALTORS are passionate about their work.
They adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and share a state-of-the-art Multiple
Listing Service. Serving over 36,000 Members in the Greater Toronto Area,
the Toronto Real Estate Board is Canadas largest real estate board. Greater
Toronto Area open house listings are available on www.TorontoRealEstateBoard.com
Article source: http://www.torontorealestateboard.com/market_news/release_market_updates/news2013/nr_new_TO_budget_chief_0213.htm
Tags: Toronto Realtor