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Finance minister to hold meeting in Toronto next week on GTA housing

Finance minister to hold meeting on GTA housing

TORONTO — The federal finance minister is set to meet with his Ontario counterpart and the mayor of Toronto next week to discuss the hot housing market in the Greater Toronto Area.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau's office says the meeting will take place next Tuesday in Toronto.

Morneau wrote to Ontario finance minister Charles Sousa and Toronto Mayor John Tory last week, asking to convene a meeting on the topic of eroding housing affordability in the city as soon as possible.

The gathering of the three politicians comes as Ontario's government works on a package of housing affordability measures that it has said will be unveiled soon.

Sousa has floated a number of possible measures to help cool the GTA's housing market, including implementing a tax on foreign buyers, speculators or vacant homes.

The average price of detached houses in the Greater Toronto Area was $1.21 million in March, up 33.4 per cent from last year. For the city of Toronto, the average price of detached properties hit $1.56 million, an increase of 32.8 per cent from March 2016.

 

The Canadian Press