With his February 26 federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has rejected two proposals from the real-estate industry to address high housing costs in Canadian cities.

At the end of January, the Canadian Real Estate Association, the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations, and the Real Property Association of Canada proposed the elimination of capital-gains taxes on the sale of rental properties if the vendor reinvests the proceeds in more rental housing within a year. The groups also called upon Flaherty to allow owners of rental properties to write off capital costs at higher rates.

The day the budget was released, the CREA and the CFAA issued news releases expressing disappointment that Flaherty didn’t include these proposals in the budget. “I think that the minister had been telegraphing for quite some time that there was not a lot of wiggle room in terms of the budget because they had made some fairly big announcements last fall during the economic statement,” James Brennan, the CREA’s director of external relations, told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “I was surprised that there was no action on capital gains.”

CREA CEO Pierre Beauchamp said in the association’s news release that properties are “locked-in” because landlords lose their growth in capital if they sell and reinvest. He added that they also “aren’t selling because they can’t afford to pay the capital gains taxes”.

Last year, the Georgia Straight highlighted both issues in two cover stories: “Housing Solutions” (July 26–August 2) and “Gimme Shelter” (October 11-18). In the first story, Vancouver NPA councillor Peter Ladner was quoted as saying there was an “urgent need” for the federal government to change the tax laws to give incentives to developers to build apartment buildings for rent only.

The latter story noted that property owners in Germany can write off one-third of capital costs in the first five years after construction, whereas Canadian building owners can only write off 17 percent of the costs.

Vision Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie issued a news release on February 26 claiming that the budget delivered nothing to address affordable housing. In the news release, Louie described Mayor Sam Sullivan as a “Harper yes-man” who is more concerned about creating “flaky buzzwords like ‘Civil City’ and ‘EcoDensity’ than voicing our city’s concerns in Ottawa”.

Green-building guru Lauren Gropper, a former Vancouver resident, will make a local appearance on Sunday (March 2) at the Green Living Show at B.C. Place Stadium. Gropper, who lives in Los Angeles and will be the green consultant on an as-yet-unnamed show on the Discovery Channel, told the Straight in a phone interview that green-housing projects can be as stylish, cool, and cutting edge as anything else, and still be environmentally sound.

“My main message is that you don’t have to sacrifice style or comfort to be green,” she said. “It’s a large misconception.”

Gropper, an adjunct professor at the New York–based Pratt Institute, said there are many designers creating “low-emitting furniture”—including sofas, mattresses, and tables—that doesn’t have urea-formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds. She added that condo residents can take small steps, such as changing the lighting or using paints low in VOCs, to reduce harmful effects.

For buyers of new properties, she recommended that they first determine if the developer has certified the building through the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) process, which has a third-party verification system. “You’re already moving into a situation where you really have to do very little to maintain a lower carbon footprint,” Gropper said.

She emphasized that several years in the future, the value of a LEED–certified condominium will be significantly greater than its nongreen counterpart because demand is rising for more sustainable housing. “I personally would not ever want to have bought in a building that is not green or is not certified,” she said.

Gropper is a former host of Green Force, on Home & Garden Television. When asked how she’s coping with being famous, the Prince of Wales secondary school grad laughed, and replied, “I’m not a celebrity. Not even close—maybe in my dreams.”