Ontario Construction News staff writer
Ontario has released data showing 94,753 housing completions in 2024 versus the 125,000 needed to keep it on track to meet a target of 1.5 million homes built by 2031.
And the provincial update includes long-term care beds, student housing and other categories not recognized by Canada and Mortgage and Housing data, with student dorms and retirement homes included in Ontario’s figures for the first time last year.
Excluding 14,381 additional residential units such as laneway suites, 2,278 long-term care beds, 2,807 post-secondary student housing beds, and 1,825 retirement home units, the province’s data shows 73,462 homes were built in 2024 using measures that align with the most recent federal figures.
The province added long term care beds in 2023, allowing it to meet its 110,000 goal.
Ontario has only released data for rental housing starts between January and June, but industry associations say the province is unlikely to meet its 2025 target of 150,000 homes and 175,000 homes the following year amid the worst housing downturn in decades.
Precipitated by high building costs and fees, a spike in interest rates and economic uncertainty caused by U.S trade policy, the downturn could see up to 40 per cent of the residential construction workforce laid off, according to Building Industry and Land Development Association CEO Dave Wilkes.
Ontario’s newly updated housing tracker also shows that only 23 of 50 municipalities met at least 80 per cent of their residential construction targets last year, versus 32 who did so in 2023.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation housing figures, meanwhile, show housing completions through the first half of 2025 in areas across the country with more than 10,000 people were 25 per cent below the same period last year.
Ontario’s housing completions have been available from federal sources since early this year, but the Ford government says it took time to update the data, which was further delayed by the election call in February.
