Residential builders glad housing identified as a priority, but more details are… – Press Release

Vaughan, April 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) is pleased the federal government has made the country’s housing crisis a major plank in its 2022 budget but it’s unclear how proposed measures will actually boost the supply of new homes condos and rental housing.

“The government has indicated it has earmarked $10 billion to help ease the housing crisis but many of the proposals are demand-side measures such as assisting people to save for a down payment,” says RESCON president Richard Lyall. “We have a major housing supply deficit in Canada and there’s a lack of specifics as to how these measures will increase the stock of housing.”

For example, the budget proposes a $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund over five years to help municipalities with planning and delivery of housing with a target of 100,000 new units a year, but there are few details on how it will speed-up new supply. The government has set aside another $1.5 billion over two years for 6,000 new affordable housing units through the Rapid Housing Initiative, $2.9 billion in a co-investment fund to provide housing to vulnerable Canadians, earmarked $4.3 billion for Indigenous communities over seven years, including $2.4 billion for on-reserve housing in Indigenous communities over five years, and $150 million for affordable housing in northern Canada over the next two years.

“We are critically short of housing and demand is only going to increase due to immigration and population growth, so it’s critical that we pull out all the stops to boost supply,” says Lyall. “Ontario is short about 25,000 housing units a year so more measures are needed but there is a lack of specific information on how these funds will put a dent in the problem and substantially boost housing.”

Canada currently ranks 34th out of 35 OECD countries when it comes to the length of time it takes to get developments approved and we are last amongst G7 countries in housing supply and…

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