Ontario Construction News staff writer
The City of London has released its 2025 Annual Development Report and fourth-quarter building services report, highlighting a record-breaking year for residential development and faster approval timelines.
In 2025, the city issued building permits for 5,462 new housing units — a 48 per cent increase over 2024 and the highest annual total on record. Total construction value across all sectors reached $2.71 billion, up 23 per cent from last year’s previous record and the highest annual total in London’s history.
Since 2022, city council has approved 51,434 new housing units, exceeding the Province of Ontario’s housing pledge target of 47,000 units. By the end of 2025, 15,360 residential units had been created toward London’s housing pledge.
“Breaking these records did not happen by accident. This report reflects the deliberate, targeted improvements to our approval processes that ensure London responds to the housing challenge effectively,” Mayor Josh Morgan said in a statement. “We are approving more homes than ever, surpassing provincial targets, getting shovels in the ground faster, and planning responsibly to deliver more homes for Londoners.”
Growth in 2025 was driven largely by medium- and high-density housing, with apartments and other multi-unit dwellings accounting for 82 per cent of all residential units approved through building permits. High-density housing led the increase, with 3,980 units delivered — surpassing historical annual totals across all housing types over the past decade.
Scott Mathers, deputy city manager of housing and community growth, said process improvements played a key role in supporting the surge.
“By streamlining approvals and reducing processing timelines, particularly for minor zoning amendments and other key application types, we are helping projects move faster from application to construction while still meeting legislative requirements and supporting quality development,” he said.
The report also tracks continued progress on affordable housing. Since the launch of the city’s Roadmap to 3,000 Affordable Units Plan in late 2021, 2,576 city-funded affordable housing units have been tracked — an increase of 437 units since the end of 2024. Including non-city-funded projects, more than 3,300 affordable housing units have been constructed or are underway in London since 2021.
Additional residential unit activity continued to rise, with 487 units approved in 2025, up 12 per cent year-over-year.
The annual development report serves as a monitoring tool for council, the development industry and the public, helping inform growth management and infrastructure planning decisions.
