Dec. 10, 2009 - About 80 per cent of builders and renovators expect 2010's residential construction will be just as good as or even better than 2009, according to a survey conducted within the Ontario Home Builders' Association (OHBA). Optimism aside, the OHBA said its members' greatest concern regards how the harmonization tax, which will be implemented in July, will affect the industry.
The federal HST bill passed on Wednesday in Parliament by a vote of 253-37, according to Canwest News Service. The bill enables Ontario to combine the provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax. OBHA president James Bazely warns that the threat of an underground cash economy looms once the sales tax rises from five to 13 per cent, and in effect robbing the government of tax revenue and exposing the consumer to higher risks involved with unregulated transactions.
"The general sentiment is that while some savings should occur by removing embedded taxes, new home builders and renovators will believe it when they see it," says Bazely.
The same survey found that 22 per cent of builders and renovators intend on hiring new staff in 2010, not in coincidence with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation forecasting that housing starts will increase 16 per cent next year.
"We are cautiously optimistic that next year the new housing and renovation sectors will be positive contributors to job creation and economic growth," says OHBA president James Bazely.