Ontario communities have consistently fallen behind the rest of Canada in homebuilding, with Toronto placing at 32 out of the country's top 100 biggest cities and towns, according to a new report by the Smart Prosperity Institute.
Using data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Smart Prosperity — a policy think tank — ranked the largest communities in the country on their homebuilding records over the past six years. Ontario landed in the bottom half of provinces in number of new homes built per capita.
The CMHC defines housing starts as "an economic indicator that reflect the number of residential housing projects that have been started over a specific length of time." These projects are split into three types: single-family houses, townhouses or small condos and apartment buildings with five or more units.
From January to October 2024, the province built 13,000 fewer homes than during the same period the year prior.
Issues dogging developers, like high interest rates and labour shortages, did not appear to cause the same impact in the rest of Canada, where 14,000 more homes were started during that window than the previous year.
When it comes to building ground-level homes, Toronto ranked nearly dead last in the Smart Prosperity report, constructing just three per 1,000 residents.
However, the city did rank higher for apartment starts. Forty-five new apartments units were launched per 1,000 residents, placing Toronto at number 15 countrywide, the highest of any municipality in Ontario. Its total housing starts sits at 47.9 per 1,000 residents.
Only three Ontario communities — Pickering, Oakville and Kitchener — cracked the top 20 housing starts per capita, sitting at nine, 12 and 16, respectively.
Municipalities in Ontario took up 13 of the bottom 20 spots for per capita homebuilding, the report said.
Burnaby, B.C., took the top spot for total housing starts, with 91.8 starts per 1,000 residents.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing publishes a running tracker of each Ontario municipality's homebuilding stats. According to that data, only six out of 51 towns and cities on the list have met the quota assigned to them by the province this year.
Queen's Park has set a goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031 but is not on track to meet it.
