Windsor’s soft housing construction part of ‘virtually flat’ Canadian market

Home construction has stayed soft in Windsor and most of Canada.

The latest monthly housing starts report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows home construction remains soft in Windsor — and much of the country.

On Monday, the CMHC released its tracking of housing starts for May which showed a 6 per cent decline from April and a 5.2 per cent year-over-year drop, describing the 6-month trend as “virtually flat” for housing housing starts.

“The construction levels are starting to sort of level off in general,” said Anthony Passarelli, the CMHC lead economist for southwestern Ontario. “We’ve sort of had quite a bit of rental constructions, particularly over the last couple of years, and that’s sort of starting to level off and decrease a bit.”

In an interview with CTV News, Passarelli said construction of single-detached, townhome, and condominium units has “fallen off” and remains soft with the housing pipeline beginning to thin.

Soft market

The data show a mixed bag for Windsor.

The CMHC report includes a 22 per cent dip in total housing starts over the running 6-month trend for the city while the year-over-year figures show a 34 per cent jump in total housing starts — which may belie the soft nature of the market.

“You’re a little bit ahead of last year,” said Passarelli. “But last year wasn’t necessarily that strong of a year, in terms of new home starts.”

“You’re building similar numbers to a year ago and those numbers were not very healthy, right? So, you still have a sort of a soft market in that single-detached-, townhome-type of segment. There is some more rental that’s been built this year,” said Passarelli.

The CMHC report shows 40 single-detached housing starts in May 2026 compared to 33 in May 2025, while 46 new units for all other housing types compared to 31 the same time last year.

The 6-month moving average tracked by CMHC shows single-detached housing starts climbed from 289 in April to 309 in May, a 7 per cent increase, while all other housing types dropped from 990 to 684, a 31 per cent decline.

The report also shows a 57 per cent decline in units completed from April to May, while showing marginal 3.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent month-to-month increases in approved and under construction units respectively.

“Keep in mind this data changes quite rapidly, particularly if there’s an apartment project that starts at a particular month. The numbers could really shoot up quickly,” said Passarelli.

The City of Windsor declined to comment on the CMHC housing report, pointing to the need for further review of the figures.

“As this request is related to external data, it can be challenging for the City of Windsor to provide commentary without first reviewing how it compares to our own local data, as differences in reporting methods and timing can result in variations,” said Michael Janisse, the senior manager of communications for the city, in an emailed response to a request for comment by CTV News.

Ontario saw a 2.6 per cent increase in completions from April to May while housing starts climbed 3 per cent over the same period.

Year-over-year provincial housing starts were down 3 per cent.

Moving forward

The housing market has been the subject of several government initiatives meant to spur home construction, from Ottawa’s Housing Accelerator Fund and Ontario’s planning updates meant to roll back restrictive zoning to new federal-provincial incentives looking to remove HST and development charge cost barriers.

Passarelli expects the newly announced programs to have some impact, and stressed municipalities are sensitive to the housing need.

“They’re trying to incentivize the market,” said Passarelli. “It’s kind of needed because we have generally been under building for quite some time, even in a market like Windsor.”

Passarelli said there is expected to be a lull in construction as the focus on purpose-built rental units wanes and more attention is paid to attainable in-demand ownership options.

“That sort of more affordable, ownership, ground-oriented housing particularly is one where there seems to be sort of a pent-up demand,” said Passarelli. “If we’re able to get more of that built, that would be much needed in the market.”

Montreal saw the largest housing start jump among Canada’s major cities, with an 18 per cent year-over-year increase driven by multi-unit builds while Toronto dipped 12 per cent, and Vancouver slid 7 per cent over the same period.

The next CMHC housing start report is due to be released July 16.