Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
Maybe when the era of double property taxation on rental properties comes to an end.
After all, the more expensive the property, the higher the tax............
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That is exactly the problem, the nicer you build something the more your taxed (effectively punished for doing something special). So for a developer to find a decent return on their investment or at least a positive one, the incentive (or necessity of survival) is to build cheap. If we had a large wealthy population, then some developers would take the risk and go very high-end because people would want and be able to afford the rent or lease. You could say that they have tried this with 55 Queen, but I think the majority of that building was suppose to be upscale Condos originally, and I think over half of it has been converted to a Hotel (likely a reason for this, condos were not selling). We live in Atlantic Canada, not New York or downtown Toronto. In addition, the City requires developers to absorb more and more costs, year over year, setbacks get larger (less ability to monetize expensive land), 10% of land has to be given for public purposes, more landscaping, have to pay for any new streets, services, traffic intersections, sidewalks, street lights, etc. For commercial buildings, the property tax in NB is fast approaching average net rents (the rent the owner actually receives for their building from tenants), it is crazy. There should be an incentive for those who actually use architects and build quality design, and not just for downtown developments, as downtown is becoming an oligarchy of land owners.