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The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) will be releasing a comprehensive and extensive report Sept. 22 that will grade how municipalities in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) have fared in building new homes, condos and rental units.
The report will provide a rundown of housing starts, reveal the sales numbers for several municipalities in the GGH and do a deep dive into the effect that the crisis has had on employment.
“I expect that the findings of this report will be both informative and eye-opening to many,” says RESCON president Richard Lyall. “We know that we are trending in the wrong direction. There have been significant job losses already in the residential construction industry and projects have been shelved. This research will help us gauge the scope of the crisis and how it should be tackled.
“The Toronto and Hamilton new condo market, in particular, has gone from bad to terrible as inventory swells,” says Lyall. “I don’t think many people realize just how bad the situation has become. The residential construction industry has hit a wall, and we have the worst new home and condo sales in a generation. We need quick, decisive action to right the ship. If we don’t address the issues, our economy will be in dire straits.”
The report was done by the University of Ottawa’s Missing Middle Initiative (MMI). The research comes at a particularly important time, as housing unit sales and starts have all but ground to a halt.
“Both the federal and provincial governments have committed to doubling housing starts,” says Mike Moffatt, economist and founder of the MMI. “Unfortunately, housing starts are falling, and new home sales show that further declines in starts are about to come. All three orders of government must act to address the housing crisis.”