Ontario housing starts at lowest level since 2009, financial watchdog says

The construction of new housing in Markham, Ontario, is set against the sun, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Ontario’s housing starts for the first quarter of this year were at the lowest levels since 2009, the province’s financial accountability officer said in a report Wednesday.

The FAO’s economic monitor report said the latest economic indicators are largely positive, with employment, retail and wholesale trade, manufacturing sales and exports all seeing gains, but there is “significant weakness” in the housing sector.

In the first quarter of 2025, construction started on 12,700 housing units, which financial accountability officer Jeffrey Novak said is the lowest level since 2009.

That’s down 20 per cent from the first quarter of 2024, a year that also saw relatively low levels of housing starts.

“Home building has been negatively affected by high construction costs and weak sales as households continue to face housing affordability challenges,” Novak wrote.

The government set a goal of getting 1.5 million new homes built over 10 years, by 2031, but the province is not currently on track to meet that target.

A spokesperson for Housing Minister Rob Flack said several billion dollars in infrastructure funds are expected to help.

“While we’ve made progress, we face challenges beyond our control — global economic uncertainties, supply chain disruptions, and with President Trump’s tariffs and tariff threats, it is not business as usual,” Alexandra Sanita wrote in a statement.

“We are continuing to take bold action to get more shovels in the ground and build more homes, faster, by streamlining development processes, lowering costs, and reducing delays.”

As well, there were 36,300 home resales in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest non-recessionary level since mid-2000, the FAO report said.

“The decline likely reflects uncertainty related to the threat of U.S. tariffs, which has increased consumer concerns about job security and personal finances,” Novak wrote in the report.

NDP finance critic Jessica Bell said the report shows Ontario is heading in the wrong direction when it comes to housing.

“The premier needs to get serious about making housing more affordable,” Bell wrote in a statement.

“That means investing in building non-profit housing on public land, easing zoning rules to speed up construction, and bringing in strong rent control. In the middle of a trade war, we need to be strengthening Ontario and build homes that people can actually afford – not regressing to where we were more than a decade ago.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said the government has “completely abandoned Ontarians.”

“Across the province, families are struggling to make ends meet and homelessness is skyrocketing,” he wrote in a statement. “Yet this government continues to pour money into wasteful projects like the tunnel under the 401, instead of investing in what people actually need: affordable homes in the communities they want to live in.”

The government’s spring budget projected 71,800 housing starts in total for 2025, down sharply from the projection of 92,300 for this year in the last budget.

Article by Allison Jones.