After years of news stories about developers hiking the prices of pre-construction homes that Ontarians have already agreed to buy, the province is consulting on potential new measures to stifle the practice.

In one of the latest, CBC reports on would-be Ottawa homeowners who signed pre-construction contracts between 2017 and 2019, only to find the developer still hasn’t begun building the townhomes. They’re being offered refunds on their deposits but suspect the developer wants to resell the homes for higher profit. 

Back in 2021, Premier Doug Ford promised to “end the practice” of forcing people with contracts for new homes to either walk away with their deposits or pay more to keep them, after a controversy over a new development in Barrie.

On Thursday, the province opened a consultation process on consumer protections related to new home purchase agreements and price escalations. It’s open to consumers and industry professionals and asks for feedback on proposed new rules as well for people to share their experiences with these kinds of price escalations and their ideas to fix the issues.

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