HALMINEN HOMES NEWS: Cost of buying New Homes to Rise in Durham
Categories: Uncategorized | Posted: May 8, 2013
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http://www.durhamregion.com/news/article/1611401–cost-of-buying-new-homes-to-rise-in-durham
DURHAM — Homebuyers will be shelling out thousands more when buying a new house in Durham Region.
Durham Region council on Wednesday approved a 23.4-per cent increase in development charges, adding $4,628 to the price of a single-detached home. The higher rate takes effect on July 1.
The increase will put development charges on a single-detached home at $25,568. That’s only the Region’s portion, as municipalities and school boards also impose the fees on new development.
Development charges, or DCs, are paid by developers to cover costs of required services such as sewers, watermains, policing, transit and more, to ensure new development isn’t paid for by existing taxpayers. The charges are incorporated in the price of a new home.
Even with the increase, DCs in Durham are less than those imposed by other regions. York charges $40,421 for each single-detached house, while Peel imposes $36,246.
John Koke, the chairman of the Durham chapter of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), said the organization was looking for “some relief” and wanted the phase-in period lengthened.
A longer phase-in to the higher rates would “allow the increase to be absorbed into the price of a home,” Mr. Koke said.
He suggested an increase of one-third of the $4,628 on July 1, another one-third on Dec. 1 and the final one-third on July 1, 2014.
Emilio DiPalo, president of the Durham Region Home Builders’ Association, raised the issue of when DCs should be paid. Usually, they are payable when a building permit is issued, but the Region is changing the timing, so half will be due when the subdivision agreement is approved by a local council.
“We don’t have the funds at that earlier stage,” Mr. DiPalo said.
In both cases, Regional councillors didn’t make the changes requested.
