Ontario records start with lower housing starts, even if they are calculated using new methods
go through Alison Jones
The government recently updated its housing tracker for the first time in eight months and provides another glimpse into the home construction struggle.
The total number of housing units calculated by the government in 2024 is 94,753. These include 73,462 traditional housing openings, 14,381 residential units, 2,278 long-term care beds, 2,807 college-level housing beds, and 1,825 retirement family suites.
But to meet the goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031 to 2031, Ontario should add 125,000 homes last year, at least 150,000 homes this year and 175,000 next year. After calculating long-term care beds, the province has achieved its 110,000 targets for 2023.
A spokesman for Housing Secretary Rob Flack said the government is helping stimulate housing construction through various funds it has built.
“Our government is accelerating housing development, investing in infrastructure and providing municipalities with the tools they need to build more homes,” Alexandra Sanita wrote in a statement. She also noted that 9,125 rental housing starts.
But so far, the year has not been well shaped, as the province’s financial responsibility officer highlighted, he marked earlier this year the start of the first quarter of 2025 was the lowest since 2009.
Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of the Construction Industry and Land Development Association, said builders saw this reality on the ground.
He said that home sales are the main indicator of housing opening, with lower layoffs in the construction industry already starting, and up to 40% of the workforce can be seen.
“The conditions in the market right now do reflect the recession the industry has seen in the early 1990s, so this is probably the worst in 35 years,” Wilkes said.
The challenges are numerous and complex, he said, including high cost of construction and low consumer confidence. To help, the federal government can temporarily expand new housing rebates for GST/HST, and governments at all levels can pull various leverages to reduce development costs, Wilkes said.
Municipalities use the payments of fees to fund infrastructure that secures housing, such as water and sewer lines, but builders say costs add too much to buyers’ new home prices, and cutting them will stimulate demand and construction.
Over the past few years, the provincial government has built various funds worth billions of dollars to help stimulate housing construction, including funding for municipalities to build.
Ontario tied one of the people to the speed at which the building is tied to the housing goal, and the government assigned 50 municipalities that would get cash if the city hits at least 80% of its target.
Newly updated housing tracker data show that only 23 of them reached this threshold last year, a sharp drop from 32 of them in the previous year.
Green Party leader Mike Schreiner said one of the best ways the provincial government can stop the housing crisis is to have a more milder density in existing communities where existing infrastructure already exists. Ford strongly refused to automatically allow the construction of four complexes across the province, rather leaving these zoning decisions to individual municipalities.
Ontario can also standardize modular housing rules and fund more affordable, nonprofit, cooperative and social housing, Schreiner said.
“The Ford administration has presided over the worst housing crisis in Ontario’s history and has the worst housing figures in Canada, and they are doing their best to be opaque and honest about the extent to which the Ontario people are concerned about the crisis,” he said.
“But the reality is that we feel it in our daily lives because we have a lot of young people who want to know if they can own a house.”
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Last modified: August 11, 2025
