About one-third of a home’s price in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area is a confection of taxes, some of which are passed down from developer to consumer.

And amid a years-long, and unprecedented, housing crisis in Canada’s largest city, such a debilitating tax regime speaks of flagrantly poor, if not contemptuous, governance.

Market fundamentals, like population growth — one of many — largely determine a home’s valuation, inviting the question: if not for tax greed, how much would that million-dollar home actually cost? (And, by extension, how many hundreds of dollars could be saved on rent every month?)