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The Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act and the More Homes Built Faster Act were two of Doug Ford's housing bills that were advertised to solve Ontario's housing crisis. Despite the Progressive Conservative Party's proclamation of a 10-year commitment to build 1.5 million homes, June 2024 data shows that housing starts have declined by 44% since last year.
Two years into the Tories' 10-year housing plan, 243,802 homes, or 16% of the 1.5 million-home goal, have been built. The number of housing starts in 2023 was 89,297, almost a full 20,000 homes short. To report that they had met the annual goal, the Ontario government added long-term care beds and basement units to their list of "newly built homes."
Housing starts are an economic indicator that refers to the commencement of housing construction in a given period. A single housing start refers to a single home or apartment. Thus, a 30-unit apartment building would be counted as 30 housing starts.
New housing starts are indicative of future available housing, and Ontario—a market that is already suffering from a scarcity in affordably priced housing—has seen a rapid decline in the number of homes being constructed.
According to data published by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the number of single-detached Ontario housing starts being built in June 2023 was 1,491. For all other forms of housing, this number was 8,623. In 2024, single-detached housing starts were at 1,142 and all others 4,539, a decrease of 23% and 47% respectively.
The vast majority of municipalities of 10,000 people or greater saw a significant reduction in housing starts for June of this year, with the exceptions being Kingston, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, and Windsor with 35, 585, and 363 starts—an increase of 30%, 259%, 648% respectively.
Astoundingly, the City of Toronto, whose population growth outpaces every city in Canada and the United States, saw its housing starts reduced from 7,171 in 2023 to 2,847 in 2024 a 60% reduction. Over the same period, Guelph's housing starts were reduced from 141 to 37, Brantford from 55 to 8, 55, and Hamilton's from 321 to 25.
Industry experts state that the drop in housing starts is correlated with the drop in home sales, which are used to fund new housing projects. In April, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), reported that new home sales in the Greater Toronto Area had reached a record low.
A BILD media release states that sales of new homes in June 2024 amounted to 1,339, a 46% drop when compared to June 2023. The drop in home sales correlates with the ongoing crisis of housing affordability in Ontario.
While BILD claims that "the high costs of material, labour, and land combined with municipal fees (such as development charges) and slow municipal approvals are adding unnecessary costs and delays to new projects," the financialization of real estate is the root cause of the affordable housing shortage in Ontario.
A lack of affordable housing and free-market economics has created a negative feedback loop for housing in Ontario; because homes are unaffordable, they cannot be sold. Low sales of new homes cannot raise the necessary capital for the construction of new homes, resulting in demand for affordable housing being much higher than the supply, further inflating prices.
Thus far, Ontario has seen just over 240,000 homes built of 1.5 million required by 2031. On a year-by-year basis, this number falls short of the yearly required average of 150,000.
North Star contacted Minister of Housing Paul Calandra to comment on the state of the PC's 1.5 million home goal, who provided no response.