The only people who benefit when a house is built are the family members who get to live there, and the builder who constructed and sold the home, right?
Wrong. The positive impact of new residential construction is far-reaching, bringing benefits to families, businesses and services throughout Regina, immediately, as well as for years to come. Indeed, the residential construction industry is a primary contributor to our local prosperity.
One year of building 100 single-family homes in Regina creates approximately $42 million in investment, creating 300 jobs and approximately $15 million in wages – wages that show up as purchases right across the whole regional economy – not to mention the millions of dollars contributed in taxes as local, provincial and federal government revenues by those employed in the industry. This in itself is far-reaching.
However, what does the economic impact mean from the perspective of the contribution made by those who actually purchase and move into a newly built home? What does it mean in the real day-to-day lives of community residents?
Just think about it. When a family moves to a community and buys a newly built house, they will likely shop at local stores to buy furniture and accessories to decorate the home. They will shop at local stores for their daily groceries, supplies, and other consumer items. They will gas up their vehicles at local gas stations so they can get to the stores and elsewhere, have local mechanics work on their vehicles when the break down or need the oil changed, or buy a new vehicle at a local dealer when it’s time to re-place the old one.
The family may need to hire local companies for regular services to maintain their home, such as landscaping, yard care, house cleaning, pet sitters or pool upkeep.
Their children will enrol in schools or day care. This increases enrolment meaning more teachers, day-care workers, janitors, cafeteria workers and other support staff will need to be hired. Those children may also join sports leagues or other activities, and families will need to buy equipment and pay registration fees that provide stipends for referees, coaches, and instructors.
All of this economic activity puts income into the pockets of local business owners and other professionals, and their families, who then, in turn, go out and spend money themselves which infuses even more money into the community’s local economy.
The new family also pays property tax and fees to the City of Regina, as well as a host of provincial taxes. These tax revenues help pay for a wide range of government services, including school teachers, police departments, garbage collection, parks maintenance and road repairs.
Over the long term, as the families who move into new homes become part of the community, their positive impact continues. We roughly estimate that those 100 new homes provide the community with additional, annually-recurring impacts of $3.1 million in local income, $743,000 in taxes and other revenue for local governments, and 53 local jobs. Therefore, not only does home building itself generate huge economic impact on the local economy, but the benefits are even more far-reaching because those who purchase newly built homes also infuse money into the local economy. As such, the entire community benefits from the prosperity generated through new home building and development.
Regina from 2007 to 2014 experienced a boom. As Regina grew, the residential construction industry developed the new neighbourhoods and built the new homes that defined our city’s growth. That growth led to prosperity for all of Regina citizens. We want this prosperity to continue need public policy makers to embrace principles that encourage growth and stifle growth.
The residential construction industry is positioned to work closely with City of Regina policy and decision makers to ensure that continued growth is an underlying consideration in all decisions related to housing and development in Regina. City of Regina citizens can support the continued growth and prosperity of our city as well.