1:40 PM Mar 14, 2023
The residential building industry is presently in the midst of a perfect storm, the repercussions of which will ripple across society. We have a massive housing crisis which poses a danger to our society. Inflation is still high, running around 5.9%, and interest rates have risen to a level not seen since 2008. The housing market, which was in bull territory for almost a generation, is now in a correction. Sales of new homes have plummeted due to a variety of factors and rents are going up.
Last year, the residential construction industry in Ontario built about 96,000 new units. Traditionally, the industry has averaged about 75,000 units a year. We’d have to substantially increase production to meet the targets. Sales are dropping, however, at a time when we need them to increase. When the fundamentals improve, and they will, there will be pressure to significantly ramp up production. It is critical then, that we lay the groundwork now for that to happen.
It is abundantly clear that we must digitize and streamline the development approvals system across the province in order to speed-up the build of housing. AECO Innovation Lab and RESCON have been working on the One Ontario initiative to accomplish that and a pilot has now been approved for Simcoe County.