'Big challenge': Stouffville looking for ways to make homes more affordable as prices skyrocket

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 10. 2022

Price: $920,000. That’s the median cost of a home in Whitchurch-Stouffville and a problem the town is facing as it attempts to craft a housing strategy to facilitate growth over the next 30 years.

Addressing the affordability gap of housing is front and centre as the average house price has increased 100 per cent over the last 10 years. “This is a big challenge that we are all facing,” Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt said.    

The Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville retained Tim Welch Consulting Inc. to undertake a housing strategy. The numbers they delivered in a report to council at a meeting Feb. 2 were sobering.

“There are limited rental opportunities for low-income households in the town,” Ryan Taylor from Tim Welch Consulting said.

The average rent of $1,400 a month is also unaffordable for many residents seeking this type of housing. To make matters worse, the vacancy rate is below one per cent, which is considered very low and drives up cost, Taylor added.

According to the report, the town only has a little more than 200 primary rental units in the entire town. No new purpose built rental has been completed in the town over the last five years.

In the next 30 years, Stouffville is targeted to grow from around 50,000 people to just over 88,000. The current housing stock of 76 per cent of homes being single detached will have to be rejigged to meet growth targets, including more higher density developments.

As house prices skyrocket, Ward 4 Coun. Rick Upton wasn’t sure what could be done to stop it. “Here in Stouffville, we have land going for $3 million, $4 million, even $ 7 million an acre,” he said. “(Affordable housing) is impossible from a business point of view when you start paying $5 million an acre.”

Lovatt did some calculating on a new development on Tenth Line and said for the cost of land alone is already $480,000 per lot.

“I think that there's a general feeling and distrust of the development community and not just in our community, but I think across the region and probably in the province,” he said. “We have an application for 106 stacked (townhomes), which is massive density, which is over two times where official plan currently has in that area. And people see that and think all the developers are just being greedy.”

Lovatt said it’s unlikely those stacked townhomes will come in at affordable prices. According to the report, affordability is when a house price is 30 per cent of household income. For instance, on the median house price of $920,000 a household income of $230,000 would be needed to achieve affordability. The average household income in Stouffville is $112,000. “I'm just trying to understand from a policy perspective, is there anything in our tool box where we can see affordability of home ownership?” Lovatt said.

According to the report, there are various incentives that can be offered to developers to help try and achieve affordability.

Ward 6 Coun. Sue Sherban said the town needs to do better job of finding sites in town to build affordable homes.

The town held a housing summit in December with more than 160 participants as part of the housing strategy. Key points of concern included the lack of affordable housing, lack of rental units, and lack of housing for seniors and young adults.

The goal of the Housing Strategy is to ensure that there are sufficient housing options in the town to meet the housing needs to the year 2051.

A second report is expected later this year about next steps for the town.