Impacts of Development Charges on Housing Challenges
York Regional Council is exploring several options to help address housing challenges.
Development charges are a cost recovery tool municipalities use to help fund vital growth-related, housing enabling infrastructure, including water, wastewater, roads and transit. In York Region, development charges fund about two thirds of growth infrastructure within the 2025 Capital Plan.
While the suggested measures below may provide some relief to the Region’s housing challenges, everyone has a role to play and advocacy work with all levels of government will continue.
Actions Council approved as of April 3, 2025
At the April 3, 2025 Special Meeting of Council, the following actions were approved:
- Ground-related development, deferring payment of hard services development charges (water, wastewater and roads) until first building permit issuance, interest-free, effective as of April 3, 2025
- High-rise buildings until the earlier of 48 months, or registration of condominium, with the first 2 years being interest free, effective as of April 3, 2025
Actions approved by Council on June 26, 2025
- Policy updates and actions approved in June 2025 include:
- Deferral of development charges, including:Non-luxury rental until their use changes, provided they operate as non-luxury rentals for at least 40 years and have a minimum of four units. This policy is retroactive to April 3, 2025, and is available for developments achieving building permits up to December 31, 2029
- Changes to other existing deferral policies to incentivize development of large and small office buildings
- A first-time homebuyers’ development charges equivalent rebate, for new homes up to $1.5 million, passing savings to homebuyers to take effect pending receipt of new dedicated funding from provincial and federal governments to fully offset costs
- Other policies include:
- Increasing flexibility for developers, providing upfront financing for infrastructure
- Supporting farming, with a new deferral or exemption for a new residential dwelling unit for farm workers on agricultural lands
- Revised redevelopment credits treatment to encourage prompt demolition of derelict buildings
- Allowing for the use of Pay-on-Demand Surety Bonds to secure development charges deferrals and infrastructure financing
- Ability to prepay residential development charges
Suggested actions to be reviewed with the 2026 DC Bylaw
Options to mitigate development charges rate increases continue to be reviewed as part of the 2026 Development Charges Bylaw, such as the review of:
- Services and capital projects included in the 2026 DC Bylaw
- Statutory deduction assumptions, including the benefit to existing and post period benefit shares
- Growth assumptions, including population and residential/non-residential shares
Details of continued advocacy work with the federal and provincial governments
Senior levels of government have the greatest financial tools available to them. York Region’s continued advocacy is critical to secure increased, direct and predictable funding for housing priorities, including housing enabling infrastructure and community housing developments and incentives.
Advocacy work will continue for:
- Making upper-tier municipalities eligible for the Building Faster Fund, Housing Accelerator Fund, removing the Development Charge Freeze requirement on the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund and providing access to additional funding
- Updating the First-Time Homebuyer HST rebate to reflect market conditions and raise the price threshold
- Incentivizing purpose-built rental through the federal tax system
- Contribute funding share for new community housing units
New, increased and predictable infrastructure funding could also potentially help alleviate future development charge rate increases as grants would be deducted from project cost assumptions used for the development charges rate calculation.
