A new report from CMHC entitled, Canada’s Housing Supply Shortages: Estimating what is needed to solve Canada’s housing affordability crisis by 2030 takes initial steps to determine how much supply is needed to restore housing affordability in Canada by 2030. With a particular focus on the four largest provinces of Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta, the report looks at the housing supply gap relative to the state of housing affordability for the entire housing system.
“The scale of the challenge identified in this report is more important than the exact number of housing units required,” said Aled ab Iorwerth, Deputy Chief Economist, CMHC. “Canada’s approach to housing supply needs to be rethought and done differently. There must be a drastic transformation of the housing sector, including government policies and processes, and an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to increasing the supply of housing to meet demand.”
CMHC projects that if the current rate of new construction continues as is, housing stock will increase by 2.3 million units, reaching close to 19 million housing units by 2030. But, to achieve affordability for everyone in Canada by 2030, it estimates we will need an additional 3.5 million units, climbing to over 22 million total units for the country.
The report contends that increasing housing supply in both the rental and homeownership market is critical to achieving affordability, and that delivering more housing supply beyond predicted growth in the number of households will enable better matching of households with the right type of housing for their needs.
“More housing units created in the housing market will create opportunities for households to move into housing that responds to their demands,” the report states, pointing out that this ‘filtering process’ naturally frees up housing to improve housing affordability over time. Additionally, it states that not all the new housing units need to be new, purpose-built construction, citing increased co-living arrangements and the redevelopment of existing residential, commercial, and industrial properties as examples of alternative approaches.
For more information on housing affordability in Canada, visit: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation | CMHC (cmhc-schl.gc.ca)
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