Doubling Home Construction Will Barely Improve Affordability in Canada: CMHC

Doubling the pace of homebuilding in Canada will only bring affordability back to levels seen right before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new government report that lowers expectations for the impact of construction on housing costs.

The country must boost building to as much as 480,000 housing units a year by 2035 just to bring affordability back to where it was in 2019, the report from the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. said Thursday. The current rate of homebuilding is about 250,000 units, the agency said.