WHAT’S GOING ON WITH HOUSING IN OTTAWA?

Council approve urban boundary expansion, big intensification goal

The City of Ottawa will grow out, and continue to grow up, over the next 26 years.

More than 1,000 hectares of homebuilding land will be added to the outer edges of Ottawa’s suburbs and high-density developments will be encouraged in existing neighbourhoods now that city council has endorsed a growth plan to accommodate 402,000 more residents.

Council voted 15-6 on Wednesday to add between 1,350 and 1,650 hectares of development land inside the urban boundary and to set a residential intensification goal of 51 per cent between July 2018 and July 2046. That means the city will attempt to establish more than half of all new homes in established communities, with the intensification goal climbing to 60 per cent between 2041 and 2046.

The residential land added inside the urban boundary would make up 1,281 hectares and the rest would be for employment land, with the exact amount of employment land determined after a staff study.

The rental market predictions 2020-2021

• Short-term rentals in Ottawa (now vacant due to Coronavirus) may be converted to long-term apartment rentals or sold, and this could add unexpected supply to the market.

• Rents were rising faster than incomes, so first-time buyers struggled to come up with down payments. To add insult to injury, the stock market has dropped dramatically because of the pandemic, so anyone who managed to save a down payment and invested it in ‘blue chip stocks’ may now find out they’ll need to save for a few more years.

• With the Coronavirus containment efforts, the banning of evictions, the conversion of Airbnbs into long-term rentals, and a halt to immigration, rents will drop. That will allow renters to save more toward a future purchase.

The new light rail project

The Confederation Line, will connect Blair Station in Ottawa’s east end to Tunney’s Pasture near the trendy Westboro neighbourhood, with an underground tunnel through Ottawa’s downtown core.

Construction has continued for the past five years and the project is set to come online later this summer. The impact the LRT system will have on the housing market is already palpable, according to Mr. Shaw.

“Each community has a chance to do something different. The light rail is going to change some dynamics if you’re looking longer term,” he says. “The light rail is going to dramatically affect [some neighbourhoods].”

According to Mr. Kavcic, Ottawa’s real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down. While he wrote it was primed to ‘break out’ in 2017, it will grow further still in 2018.