YORKTON - Housing incentives offered by the City of Yorkton were reviewed by Council at its regular meeting Jan. 27.
“The City has been offering a suite of housing incentives in order to stimulate residential construction and residential lot sales,” said Michael Eger – Director of Planning, Building & Development with the city.
The range of incentives include:
* The Rental Housing Incentive Program (RHIP), adopted in 2011, provides a five year, 100 per cent tax abatement for anyone constructing five or more rental units. This policy has no expiry.
* The Sale of Residential Lot Sales Policy, updated in 2022 to allow extended timelines (24 months) for a contractor to build on a City-owned residential lot prior to paying in full.
* The Residential Construction Incentive Program (RCIP), adopted in 2022, provides a five year, 100 per cent tax abatement for dwellings consisting of one to four units. This policy has a built-in expiry at the end of every year.
* The Residential Lot Sales Rebate Program (RLSRP), adopted in 2024, provides a 50 per cent rebate of the price off any City-owned residential lot. This policy also has a built-in expiry at the end of every year.
Because two of the four policies expire annually, Administration was seeking Council direction on how to proceed in 2025, said Eger.
To-date the incentives have varying levels of success.
“Since its inception in 2011, the Rental Housing Incentive Program has been issued on three occasions, resulting in 40 new rental units. Rental housing construction is lagging demand, as evidenced by shrinking rental vacancies in that segment,” said Eger.
Certainly there is a need for more units in Yorkton, noted Eger, citing in their annual rental market survey, Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC) captures Yorkton’s rental vacancy at 2.3 per cent, which is below the 3.0 per cent rate that CMHC defines as a healthy rental market.
There is no data available for the secondary market, though anecdotal reports suggest that there is even less availability in that segment, he added.
The Residential Construction Incentive was adopted in 2022 in response to stagnant single and two-unit home starts. This initially did little to increase new builds and, in 2023, the program was expanded to include three and four-unit dwellings. That change has led to construction of two, four-unit rental dwellings. Altogether, there have been five successful applicants in the RCI, and a total of 11 new dwelling units, continued Eger.
“As a successor to the Show Home Rebate Program, Council adopted the Residential Lot Sales Rebate Program in 2024. The 50 per cent rebate is paid for by the City’s Land Fund, and is capped to minimize losses. The program yielded only one lot sale to date, facilitating one of the four-unit dwellings,” he said.
In terms of financial implications tax abatements have an unknown, but likely quite small, impact on the City’s finances, offered Eger.
“The rebate program, however, does create losses in the City’s self-sustaining Land Fund. These losses will not be realized until the City undertakes future land development,” he added.
In the end Council was unanimous in supporting the recommendation Residential Construction Incentive Policy and the Residential Lot Sales Rebate Program Policy be renewed through 2025.
