A new report from an Ottawa-based think-tank confirms that Ontario will need to build 1.5 million homes over the next decade in order to match the demand for new housing.
The report titled Ontario’s Need for 1.5 Million More Homes, which comes from the University of Ottawa’s Smart Prosperity Institute, says there is already a shortage of close to a half million homes while around 1 million more will be needed as the province grows.
It also notes that 48 per cent of the demand will come from just three areas: Toronto, York Region and Peel Region.
The latter area will actually lead the way as the report suggests that Peel Region will need build 277,000 new homes. Toronto is just behind that number at 259,000 and York is at 180,100.
Ottawa (100,100) and Halton (90,400) round out the top five while the top 10 is completed by Durham (89,900), Waterloo (70,000), (Simcoe 69,900), Hamilton (52,400) and Middlesex (39,500).
There are three area’s of the province that will shrink slightly. The report suggests that Thunder Bay, Timiskaming and Cochrane will need fewer houses rather than more.
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The report’s authors, Mike Moffatt, Alison Dudu, and Maryam Hosseini, say they conducted the study after hearing that this was the number put forward by Ontario’s Housing Affordability Task Force prior to the spring provincial election with no data to back it up.
The report says all four major political parties signed on to reaching this number during the run up to the election.
It goes on to say that while the ruling Progressive Conservatives said they would reach this benchmark over the next 10 years, they will need to make some policy adjustments to do so as its current forecast is much lower.
“Targets are helpful, but Ontario needs a comprehensive plan to address the bottlenecks that will limit housing construction over the next decade,” the reports concludes.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of the story had improperly stated the name of the institute which conducted the survey. It has since been corrected.