I'd like to thank you all for having me today. My name is Leah Zlatkin. I'm a COO and mortgage broker at Mortgage Outlet.

In regard to the study that was conducted, I will address two issues. The first issue is that young people cannot actually afford houses. The proposal is for a temporary reduction in immigration targets until home construction and/or incomes catch up to the immigration, with an additional focus on immigrants who can contribute to the supply of housing.

We need new government backing of shared equity for first-time homebuyers of new construction properties, helping them secure a property before prices run away from them. The cost of waiting to save for a down payment is too steep given a 5.7% long-term annual price appreciation.

We need to work on fixing some of the mistakes the CMHC had with its first-time homebuyer incentive program, simplifying it drastically. We need to increase the qualifying income and the total mortgage amount, and allow for conventional properties, or any properties, with longer amortizations.

We need to allow first-time homebuyers to take on 35- and 40-year amortizations, allowing 40-year amortizations for first-time buyers for new construction in highly dense areas near transportation hubs as primary residences. It's even better if we can include all properties, not just new construction. Properties over $1 million or conventional properties would also benefit from this plan.

We need to create government grants to provide temporary 10% to 15% deposits—allowing people to total 20% of the down payment—for developers for well-qualified buyers of condos. The government would get its deposit back when the buyer's purchase closes.

We need to create legislation to prevent counterproductive OSFI policies, including curbing fixed-payment variable mortgages, crucial to shelter borrowers from extreme payment shock during the term. We also need to remove the idea that we would apply a stress test on a straight switch. We need to allow lenders to offer 40-year amortizations to borrowers on renewals if they're facing more than a 20% payment increase.

The second issue is how to help the supply and demand imbalance. I propose that we reduce the government's footprint and immediately stop deficit spending. Lower rates can then incentivize construction. People did trust the government to borrow more money, because the government said rates would stay low. Plus, many people got COVID subsidies, so everyone bought a little bit more than they could chew. Government-subsidized developer financing also needs to be facilitated via CMHC at below-market rates for rapid housing projects at mid-market prices near transportation arteries.

We could also implement capital gains deferrals on rental property exchanges like the section 1031 exchange in the United States. This would allow for deferred capital gains to provide investors with more capital to invest in new rental construction properties. Basically, if you buy and sell a rental property, you don't pay capital gains until you sell the last rental property.

The housing accelerator plan has resulted in many municipalities accepting plans that seem to emphasize social welfare programs over building more homes and increasing the supply.

We need to reduce developer and investor disincentives. For example, there are overbearing tenant protection acts, and under the budget, capital gains tax increased to 66%, not 50%, where it is now. This impacts rentals and discourages investments. It should actually be the other way around. The capital gains inclusion rate should decrease to 33% for rental construction units and accelerate depreciation allowances to incent building.

We need to encourage mixed-use developments. An example would be incentives to replace non-residential commercial to mixed-use to increase density in urban areas.

Finally, we need to increase housing starts, making housing more profitable to build. Taxation on construction of houses is excessive. Many projects have gotten cancelled and many builders have gone bankrupt. We need to offer rebates for builders, and we need to remove some of the costs associated with permits and the red tape for developments.