Apartment Construction Loan Program provides fixed 10-year loans amortized over up to 50 years with federal government now including student residences in this affordable low-cost loan for housing construction.
- The announcement was made in Ottawa by housing Minister Sean Fraser made the announcement Monday in Ottawa.
- Fraser says, "It's not just going to create more affordable places for students to live near where they're going to school. It's also going to relieve pressure on the housing market by freeing up housing supply that already exists in communities that are seeing students need to compete in the market more broadly."
- According to the terms of the program, developers and builders only have to pay the interest on the loan during the construction period and only have to start paying both the principal and interest "after twelve months of stabilized effective gross income" on the rental unit.
- Housing experts say the massive recent spike in non-permanent residents has had a substantial impact on the price of rental housing because temporary residents overwhelmingly live in rented accommodation.
- Statistics Canada said that by the end of 2023, there were 2,511,437 non-permanent residents in the country — a class that includes international students and temporary foreign workers — compared to 1,305,206 in the fall of 2021.
International Student Updates
- In 2011, the number of international students in the country was just shy of 240,000.
- Late last year, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Canada was on track to host as many as 900,000 international students in 2023.
- To address the problem, Miller announced last week that the federal government is capping the number of student permits over the next two years.
- Ottawa said it will approve approximately 360,000 undergraduate study permits for 2024 — a 35 per cent reduction from 2023.
- Under the plan, each province and territory will be allotted a portion of the total, which will be distributed according to population.
Read CBC News' Original Article
Zimonjic, Peter. (2024, January 29). Liberals extend federal low-cost construction loan program to student residences. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politi...
