By Chad Ingram
Published Jan. 16 2018
The Kawartha Lakes-Haliburton Housing Corporation has been selling off some of its older units using the proceeds to invest in new buildings.
Housing corporation CEO Hope Lee visited Haliburton County councillors during a Jan. 4 meeting. Lee is also the manager of housing of the City of Kawartha Lakes which acts as the social services provider for the county.
The corporation began selling single detached and semi-detached units in 2014 and so far has sold 37 of the 64 units approved for sale.
“The prices have been good for us particularly in the latter years” Hope told councillors.
In 2017 the average sale price was $229000 up from an average of $155000 in 2014. Collectively the sales have totalled more than $6 million.
The corporation is dispossessing itself of older units largely due to their energy inefficiency.
“That really is the highest budget line that we have” Lee said.
She told councillors that detached homes have been an easier sell than some of the attached units.
The housing corporation avails itself of rebate programs for hydro gas and water and keeps an eye on utility bills educating tenants about energy efficiency when required.
While dispossessing itself of older units the housing corporation has continued to increase its overall holdings constructing new buildings such as the multi-unit one at Devan Court in Lindsay that opened in Lindsay in 2015 and the 12-unit Pinegrove Place building that opened in Minden this past summer.
The housing corporation operates a number of facilities in Haliburton County including buildings on Parkside Street in Minden Mountain Street in Haliburton Village and the Whispering Pines housing complex along County Road 21 just outside the village. Both the existing Pinegrove Place and Whispering Pines buildings represent the
first phase of a series of phases for each development.
The corporation’s housing stock will soon total 734 units.
The corporation has also achieved surpluses in recent years through measures such as the streamlining of staff positions and the utilization of contracted cleaning companies.
Lee told councillors that a surplus was also forecasted for 2017.
