By Andrew de Souza

Prince Albert opts in to home ownership program

May 17, 2011 | 6:23 AM

The city is hoping to help more people move from renting, to owning their own home by opting into to a new provincial program.

On Monday, city council voted in favour of applying to the province’s recently announced Saskatchewan Advantage Housing Plan by creating two new incentive programs in the city

The two programs help both renters transition to homeowners and also provide incentives to developers to construct rental properties. The working documents for the programs are available here.

Coun. Ted Zurakowski, who also chairs the city’s housing advisory committee, said it was the right move for the province to introduce the program.

“The province has for quite some time now that there is a housing crunch, not only in affordability but attainability,” he said.

Budget woes

Golf and curling centre faces grim season without financial boost

2h ago

Raiders AGM

Raiders impact on Prince Albert local economy continues to go up: AGM report

20h ago

Court proceedings

'The impact of this trauma will echo for generations': court case surrounding La Ronge woman's death reaches conclusion

Dec 11, 2024

“We’re certainly seeing that here in the city so we’ve stepped up and opted in to a program for anyone that’s interested in moving out of rental.”

At this point, the city’s programs can only be implemented if the province agrees to match funding.

City to help new homeowners

The first program is called the Home Ownership Program, where both the city and the province would provide $5,000 each to new homeowners to put towards a newly constructed or converted home.

The city plans to have a $50,000 budget for the program, which would be recouped through tax revenue on the newly purchased homes.

The person would have to meet a number of criteria. Under the current plan, a home-buying couple must make at least $52,000 and a maximum of $70,000. They must also complete a home ownership training course, among other things.

As well, the owner would have to sign an agreement to keep the house for five years, to avoid housing market speculation.

Zurakowski said the hope is to fill in a much needed gap on the “housing continuum,” or the spectrum of housing value.

“There’s lots of high-end housing going up,” he said. “But in fact, even people who once upon a time 10 years ago could afford to buy a mid-level home are having trouble doing that.”

City also wants more rental property

The second part of the program aims at developers in an attempt to entice them to build more affordable rental housing.

Under the program, a developer could receive up to $10,000 per unit in a construction project, split between the province and the city.

The city wants to have $300,000 each year devoted to the program.

The program, known as the Rental Construction Initiative, would also come with a specific set of criteria the developer would need to meet.

Included in the criteria is that the property must be new construction or conversion, must provide at least three units and must be kept as rental units for at least 15 years.

Unlike the homeownership program, the rental properties do not have to be considered affordable.

Instead, the idea is that any additional rental properties would be a benefit to the city.

“The development of rental units, although not necessarily social housing, will create a flow in the rental housing continuum and increase the opportunities for low income earners to find safe affordable housing,” reads the program’s outline.

Zurakowski said there might not be as much interest from the developers, but he said it was still important for the city to try.

“We’re not quite sure how much interest there’s going to be from the private developer,” he said. “But if there is … if any private contractor is interested mildly in creating new construction in apartment rentals, we’d like to provide a little extra incentive.”

Now that the city has officially created the programs, there still needs to be approval from the province before it can be implemented.

adesouza@panow.com