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Smaller lot sizes will help, as well as allowing townhomes and even condominiums to be built in established neighbourhoods
Recent news from Bloomberg is that the population of Canada grew faster in the second quarter of 2022 than it has since the height of the baby boom.
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In fact, our population growth pace is the highest among the G7 nations. In addition, immigration is being credited with most of that growth, which represents an increase of approximately 3,100 people each day.
This is great news in the sense that we need immigrants to build our labour force in the face of our aging population and declining birth rate.
In other words, we need immigrants to help us thrive as a nation. In return, we offer them a country where the quality of life is high compared to the rest of the world.
Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area feature amazing cultural, educational and other amenities in a relatively safe environment. It is easy to understand why Canada is such a desirable residential destination.
The story is a little different when looked at it from the practical standpoint of housing. In addition to needing skilled workers to build homes, we need more homes – something that has proven to be a challenge.
Demand continually outpaces supply because of labour and materials shortages, as well as increasing development charges and red tape when it comes to approvals. The result is a continuing lack of supply, which, combined with higher interest rates, may result in prices rising even more.
What is the solution? Things have to change at the municipal level to make better use of the developable land available in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area.
Last year, we heard from the provincial government that we need 1.5 million homes over the next decade, but we need changes in our municipal governments to ensure they can be built.
Toronto Mayor John Tory promised more missing middle residences and increased density where traffic nodes are located. We await the details on how that can happen. We need to know how and when that can be accomplished – and certainly, sooner rather than later.
One thing holding back development is that too much land is delegated to low-rise housing, when we need much more density.
Smaller lot sizes will help, as well as allowing townhomes and even condominiums to be built in established neighbourhoods.
We also see skyrocketing housing prices partly because of incredibly high levies and other development charges. This is the fault of government, not the developers, who are already facing incredible obstacles with the basic costs of building.
Zoning rules have to change to make new housing development happen, especially for the missing middle and high-rise types. It will be interesting to see what the recent election results do for the new home industry and for frustrated would-be buyers who either cannot afford, or cannot find, the homes and condos that will meet their needs.
I look forward to a bright future when housing supply and demand level out, and we reach a new normal in the industry.
Barbara Lawlor is CEO at Baker Real Estate Inc. Keep current with The Baker Blog at blog.bakerrealestate.com.
