Ontario Greens unveil First-Time Homebuyers Plan to cut costs and boost housing supply

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner and Deputy Leader Aislinn Clancy canvassing in Kitchener, Ont. on Feb. 1, 2025. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV News)

The Ontario Green Party has announced a First-Time Homebuyers Plan aimed at reducing costs and increasing housing supply within urban boundaries. The plan includes eliminating development charges and the Land Transfer Tax for first-time buyers of smaller homes, condos, and apartment units.

“Young people are leaving the province because they’ve given up hope of ever being able to afford a home in Ontario,” Schreiner said in a media release. “Meanwhile, the only kind of housing Doug Ford wants to build is mansions in the Greenbelt that no one can afford. He’s putting the profits of wealthy land speculators over young families, and it’s not fair.”

The Greens’ plan aims to build two million homes within urban areas by:

• Allowing fourplexes and four-storey buildings province-wide, sixplexes in cities over 500,000 people, and mid-rise buildings along transit corridors.
• Removing development charges on homes under 2,000 square feet within urban boundaries and creating an Affordable Communities Fund to support municipal housing infrastructure.
• Eliminating the Land Transfer Tax for first-time homebuyers.

Kitchener Centre candidate Aislinn Clancy emphasized the need for housing reform.

“I want my kids to grow up knowing that they’ll be able to buy a home in their community one day, but we need to make major changes to get there,” she said in part in the release.

The Ontario Greens argue that their plan will save first-time buyers an estimated $150,000 and increase housing availability without urban sprawl.