Does Budget 2024 make it easier to buy a first home in Canada? – National

The Liberal government’s 2024 federal budget tabled Tuesday held a clear focus on “fairness” among generations and efforts to make the housing market more affordable, particularly for younger Canadians feeling frustrated about their homebuying prospects.

Experts who spoke to Global News after the budget’s release said there are signs of “hope” in the new spending plan’s efforts to improve access to Canada’s often unaffordable housing market.

But Canadians hoping for a leg up to buy their first home will largely be kept waiting, market watchers say, and some measures aimed at improving affordability could inadvertently worsen the situation for prospective buyers.

“I wish I could deliver the message that tomorrow everything is going to be better,” says Paul Kershaw, associate professor at the University of British Columbia and founder of Generation Squeeze.

Kershaw says that the fundamental barrier facing many young people trying to break into the housing market is that Canada has allowed rising home prices to outpace wage growth for “decades.”

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Older Canadians have benefited from this wealth accumulation while the younger generation often struggles to get their foot into the market and acquire equity so they, too, can benefit from rising home values, he says.

There’s no quick fix that the federal budget could offer to rebalance these generational divides that he says have been widening for years.

But Kershaw says the 2024 budget nonetheless is a “game-changer,” namely because a federal fiscal document now formally recognizes that these generational differences are now driving class dynamics in Canada.

“A younger demographic is being acknowledged in this budget explicitly that their hard work isn’t paying off as it did for previous generations. And the first step in solving a problem is acknowledging you have one,” Kershaw says.

“I actually have a lot of hope that, going forward, we will make more urgent progress to restore housing affordability and support people to be able to manage their rent and manage their aspirations to break into the ownership markets.”