“The minister has communicated that the target there, he’s softened, said that target is no longer a hard target, but that we’re going to continue to move forward on building as many homes as we can,” Bethlenfalvy said.

In the spring budget, the province expected to see 71,800 homes built this year — already far off the pace needed to reach 1.5 million, but now it projects an even lower 64,300.

Projections for the next few years are also low, with 70,200 new homes expected next year, 79,600 projected in 2027 and 83,700 expected in 2028.

In 2024, CREA forecast a recovery year in Canada’s resale housing markets, fueled by pent-up demand and lower interest rates. By mid-fall 2024 the rebound appeared to be underway. That forecast would have seen national home sales once again top the 500,000 mark in 2025, and the average price of those sales return to the $700,000 range.

In early 2025, tariff chaos and economic uncertainty returned many home buyers back to the sidelines, taking particularly large bites out of activity in British Columbia and Ontario, while putting additional downward pressure on prices.

September’s rate cut sparked optimism, leading to a rise in new listings in October. However, buyer demand hasn’t kept pace, with many homes lingering due to pricing mismatches.

TRREB reported 6,138 sales in October 2025 — down 9.5% year-over-year — while new listings rose 2.7% to 16,069, highlighting growing supply.

The Bank of Canada’s consecutive rate cuts aim to restore confidence and affordability. While this may gradually draw buyers back, recovery is expected to be slow. Those with stable finances are best positioned to benefit, though caution remains amid broader economic uncertainty.

Ontario’s housing minister is considering stepping in to quash a proposed rental development at Toronto’s northern city limits, over concerns raised by a pharmaceutical company.

CBC Toronto first reported in 2022 about Sanofi Pasteur’s opposition to a three-building, highrise project at the corner of Steeles Ave. W. and Dufferin St., neighbouring its sprawling complex.  At the time, the company claimed there’s a “national security” risk having hundreds of residents able to look down on its facilities, where vaccine research and development takes place. 

Now Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic development, job creation and trades, is asking the housing minister to issue a minister’s zoning order (MZO) to limit building heights at the property to 33 metres (or about 10 storeys). 

Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday announced seven more initiatives he’s recommending for fast-tracked approval by the government’s Major Projects Office (MPO) — including multibillion-dollar energy and natural resources proposals that Ottawa hopes will deliver a jolt to the tariff-hit economy.

Carney said this latest round of projects will help the country become more economically self-sufficient, in the face of U.S. aggression, and a powerhouse player in high-demand critical minerals.

The seven initiatives, along with the five Carney recommended for approval in September, are worth a combined $116 billion to the economy, according to government figures.

Landlords have offered a few months of free rent or parking, gift cards and complimentary Wi-Fi as ways to entice prospective tenants to move-in, but one developer is now offering tenants in Toronto the ability to accrue Aeroplan points every time they pay rent.

Canada’s largest purpose-built developer, Fitzrovia, recently partnered with Chexy, a Toronto-based fintech company, to provide that option to both current and prospective tenants at all of its buildings throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

Once a lease agreement is signed, tenants can receive between 5,000 to 50,000 Aeroplan points as a bonus. Then, with monthly rental payments, residents can earn up to two Aeroplan points for every dollar paid.

Toronto’s housing market remained stuck in neutral this fall, with no sign of a rebound as home sales and prices continued to slide.

October data from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) showed home sales dropped 9.5% year-over-year to 6,138 transactions, while new listings climbed and average prices fell, leaving buyers with more options but little urgency to act.

“We’ve seen that prices are still down since the summer,” Taz Zaide, mortgage agent at 6ix Mortgage Group, told Canadian Mortgage Professional. “We’ve started doing appraisals now for properties that are coming up for closings and what we’re seeing is that the values are coming in lower than when they purchased back in June, July, even August.

Housing advocates are lamenting “missed opportunities” in last week’s federal budget, saying more effort will be needed to accelerate home construction and bring prices down.

The Liberal government’s 2025 budget tabled Nov. 4 — its first under Prime Minister Mark Carney — pledged to spend $25 billion on housing over the next five years. The budget noted Canada’s “steep housing supply gap,” with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. estimating 430,000 to 480,000 new housing units are needed per year in the next decade in order to restore affordability to 2019 levels.

That would represent around double the current pace of home construction across the country. Canadian Home Builders’ Association CEO Kevin Lee called it an “aspirational” target and said there’s still much that would need to change in order to achieve it, including when it comes to federal policy.

The price to rent a condo or apartment in British Columbia is falling the fastest in the country, though it still remains Canada’s most expensive province, according to a new report.

Rentals.ca released its monthly rent report Thursday, finding that the average monthly price in B.C was $2,401 in October, down 5.8 per cent from this time last year and 9.6 per cent lower than two years ago.

On the city level, municipalities in B.C. were among those with the largest rent decreases year-over-year. The average price for purpose-built apartments and condos fell 15.5 per cent in Coquitlam, 12.9 per cent in New Westminster and 12.5 per cent in Surrey.

Among Canada’s large cities, rent in Vancouver has fallen the most, down 7.4 per cent since last October to an average of $2,728 per month.

Average prices in Vancouver, the country’s second-most expensive city to rent in, reached a 43-month low in October, down 11.4 per cent over the past three years.

When it comes to shared accommodation, Vancouver also led all cities with a 16.7 per cent annual drop in rent, reaching $1,241 per month, though it simultaneously held its lead as the city with the highest rent for that type of home.