New housing starts slow despite Region’s pledge to build more homes, more quickly

Shadows of doubt are starting to cast shade over a regional pledge to build about 70,000 new homes over ten years.

That is the Region of Waterloo’s share of a provincial push to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031 and would require the region to essentially double the pace of local building over the last decade. Instead, however, recent numbers show the pace of new local starts has fallen to a ten-year low.

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, there were only 1,920 new housing starts across the tri-cities from Jan. through Aug. 2023 — and that marks the slowest pace of new local home construction since 2013.

That said, the bulk of the new building is expected in Kitchener, with that city on the hook for at least 35,000 new homes over ten years and the mayor there suggests these numbers don’t necessarily paint a full picture.

“Since we signed onto the pledge about seven months ago, [city] council has actually approved over 10,000 of our 35,000 units from a planning perspective,” Kitchener mayor Berry Vrbanovic told The Mike Farwell Show on Wednesday. “So while we’re not a third of the way there in terms of the construction, we are already at about a third of the approvals.”

He also added, in that same timeframe, more than 3,200 units have been granted final site plan approval.

Now, that does not necessarily mean smooth sailing ahead with Vrbanovic still pointing to a pair concerns, including the high cost of borrowing to buy new homes and a continued shortage of skilled workers to build them.

He did say though he does believe plans to eliminate the federal GST and provincial HST from new rental construction should help, as too should expected funding from the federal housing accelerator.

“That as well, if we’re successful and we think that we should be, will help us help fast-track some projects of different styles and different types of housing in different parts of the city — and that’s part of the solution as well.”