New housing starts have struggled to keep up with population growth in some of Canada’s large cities
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New housing starts have struggled to keep up with population growth in some of Canada’s large cities, especially Toronto, making affordability a “significant” challenge, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s first in a series of reports to get a better handle on the country’s housing supply and its impact on affordability.
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“The biggest issue affecting housing affordability in Canada is that supply simply isn’t keeping pace with demand,” the CMHC declared in the report, which was released Tuesday afternoon.
But the housing authority added that the situation is complex, with several reasons behind steep, continued price escalation in recent years.
The CHMC reports over the next couple of years will focus on the country’s six largest census metropolitan areas: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. They will look at trends and conduct analysis of factors including the relative growth in the housing supply per capita over time, the intensity of development including units per structure and building height, and how much new housing is apartments and rentals versus single-detached homes.
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In the first report, CMHC found that apartments dominate construction in large urban centres including Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, where constraints such as land and bylaws are “significant” factors in pushing up land prices.
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It is a different situation in Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa, where new supply of single-family, semi-detached, and row houses remains strong.
“Toronto prevails in the construction of high-rise apartment buildings with hundreds of units,” including those for rent or ownership, the CMHC said, noting that different types of buildings have different construction times and costs, which in turn influences affordability.
More to come …
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