TORONTO — A new study commissioned for the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) argues there is insufficient land within municipal official plans in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Greater Toronto Area to meet mid- and long-term population growth.
The insufficiency will jeopardize the provincial objective of building 1.5 million new homes and undermine efforts to address housing supply and affordability, says BILD.
“We are already in a housing supply deficit,” stated BILD CEO Dave Wilkes in a release. “Problems bringing land online for new single-family homes, townhomes and stacked townhouses, and difficulty in adding supply within cities, means we are nearly 80,000 housing units short of where we should be in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.”
The study was prepared by Malone Given Parsons Ltd. It identifies that even before the province reversed the approval of municipal official plans, the housing shortfall would increase to an estimated 97,000 grade-related housing units, including singles, semis and all forms of townhouses, plus any shortfall of high-density apartment growth by the year 2051. Following the reduction of land supply by the 2023 provincial resetting of official plan approvals, the housing shortfall could increase to 206,800 grade-related homes, plus any shortfall in apartment growth.
“Given that the GTHA accommodates over 30 per cent of Canada’s immigration each year, because immigration is the primary driver of population growth in Canada, a shortfall of housing has national implications,” said Neil Rodgers, the OHBA’s interim CEO.
BILD and the OHBA are calling on the Ontario government and municipal governments across the province to ensure housing affordability and supply are addressed by making sufficient lands available for a market-based supply of housing to meet forecasted growth needs to the planning horizon of 2051.
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