First, let’s define the two.

Tariffs are taxes imposed by governments on goods imported from another country. The importer pays the tariff, but the cost can ultimately be absorbed by the business, passed along to consumers through higher prices, or shared somewhere along the supply chain.

Development charges are, in simple terms, a form of municipal growth tax. Municipalities collect them on new development to help pay for growth-related infrastructure such as roads, water and sewer systems, transit and other community services. The developer pays the charge, but just like a tariff, that cost becomes part of the economics of the product being sold.

And in this case, the product is a home.

In Oshawa, the current published total of development-related charges on a new single-detached home is $130,682. That includes $40,720 to the City of Oshawa, $76,227 to the Region of Durham, $7,535 in education development charges and $6,200 in cash-in-lieu of parkland.

No, that is not a misprint.

Before the builder has completed the home, installed the kitchen, landscaped the property or sold it to a buyer, more than $130,000 in government-imposed development-related charges can already be attached to that house.

And those costs don’t magically disappear.

They become part of the cost of producing the home. Depending on market conditions, the builder may absorb some of that cost, but ultimately it influences what new housing must sell for if a project is going to make financial sense.

Here is where the numbers become interesting.

The average detached home sold in Oshawa in August 2026 was approximately $715,000. A charge of $130,682 represents more than 18% of that sale price.

Think about that for a moment.

Before we talk about land, lumber, concrete, labour, appliances, architectural work, financing, real estate commissions or the builder’s profit, we already have a government-related cost approaching one-fifth of the average resale price of a detached home in the city.

And if the buyer finances that additional cost through a mortgage, they don’t simply pay the development charge once. They also pay interest on the portion of their mortgage used to finance it.

So who wins?

The municipality receives money to fund growth-related infrastructure. The lender finances a larger mortgage. But the buyer needs more money to purchase the home, and the builder must carry a larger cost before the property is sold.

This is where the conversation about housing affordability becomes uncomfortable.

When politicians talk about reducing the cost of home ownership, the usual levers are mortgage rates, down-payment assistance and government incentives. Yet one of the costs government can directly influence is sitting right in front of us: the charges imposed on the creation of new housing.

The increase over the past decade makes the point even more clearly.

In 2016, the combined City of Oshawa and Region of Durham development charges on a detached home were roughly $43,000 to $44,000. Today, the comparable City and Region charges total $116,947. That is an increase of roughly 170% in ten years. Durham’s regional charge alone rose from the high-$20,000 range in that period to more than $76,000 today.

I have no issue with development charges increasing as construction costs and infrastructure costs rise. Growth does need to pay for growth.

But when a cost rises by roughly 170% in a decade, it is reasonable to ask whether the system itself has become part of the affordability problem.

That is exactly the conversation the Ontario Real Estate Association is now pushing with its recent study on development charges.

We have municipal and regional elections coming in October 2027. Housing affordability will undoubtedly be discussed.

When candidates tell us they want to make housing more affordable, perhaps one of the first questions should be:

What are you prepared to do about the cost government adds to every new home before the buyer ever gets the keys?

That is the lever nobody talks about enough.

If you have questions about the Real Estate market or if you are interested in selling or buying a home I can be reached at lindsay@buyselllove.ca or 905-743-5555