Ontario’s plan to get more homes built
Ontario is streamlining approvals, ending needless delays and cutting red tape to get shovels in the ground sooner. Learn more about some of the initiatives in the Cutting Red Tape to Build More Homes Act and other changes to help build more homes faster.
Building homes faster at a lower cost
- Letting homebuyers and homebuilders decide on the number of parking spaces in new residential development near transit based on market needs.
- Removing obstacles to make it easier to build additional residential units as-of-right.
- Empowering municipalities to make more vacant homes available for housing.
- Enabling municipalities to lower taxes on new purpose-built rentals.
- Supporting innovative construction methods, such as mass timber.
Building more types of homes for more people
- Exempting publicly-assisted universities from the Planning Act to accelerate the building of planned student housing units.
- Providing expedited processes for standardized housing designs under the Planning Act to help speed up approvals.
- Bringing exemptions and discounts into effect for affordable housing units.
Improving consultation and providing municipalities and builders with greater certainty to get homes built faster
- Working with municipalities to identify and develop best practices for consultations, including multi-lingual and digital options.
- Limiting third-party appeals to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
Prioritizing infrastructure for ready-to-go housing projects
- Investing in local infrastructure needed to build new housing, like water, sewage services and roads.
- Creating a “use it or lose it” process for approvals to address stalled development.
- Creating new authority for municipalities to allocate and re-allocate servicing capacity.
Ontario’s housing supply progress
Ontario is one of the fastest growing places in North America. From July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023, we grew by nearly half a million people. As Ontario grows, we need to get more homes built.
109,011
new homes started construction in 2023, including housing starts, long-term care and additional residential units
Nearly 19,000
new rental units started construction in 2023, the most on record
$1.8 billion
invested in housing-enabling infrastructure
Sources:
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Starts and Completions Survey
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Residential Conversions and Demolitions Statistics
- Ministry of Long-Term Care
- Ministry of Infrastructure/Ministry of Finance
Tracking housing progress
Find out how many new homes municipalities are getting built.
Actions we have taken
These are just a few of the many actions we’ve taken to increase Ontario’s housing supply.
For renters
- Implementing a 2.5% cap in 2023 and 2024 on rent increases for rent controlled units — well below the rate of inflation.
- Building more rental housing, with rental housing starts hitting the highest level on record in 2023.
- Removing the provincial portion of the HST on new purpose-built rental construction.
For municipalities
- Providing strong mayors to large and fast-growing municipalities to help them speed up approvals and get shovels in the ground.
- Creating the $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund to incentivize municipalities to get more homes built.
- Investing up to $350 million to help municipalities modernize and streamline their approval processes.
- Adding more adjudicators and staff at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) to reduce the backlog of Ontario Municipal Board legacy cases by more than 80%.
- Investing $1.8 billion in housing-enabling infrastructure through the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund.
For home-buyers and home-owners
- Prioritizing Ontario families and homebuyers by expanding the Non-Resident Speculation Tax province-wide and increasing the rate to 25%.
- Protecting new homebuyers by applying new standards to builders and increasing fines for unethical behaviour.
- Increasing gentle density so up to 3 residential units are now permitted on most residential lots, without needing a by-law amendment.
For communities
- Committing $4.4 billion over the past 3 years in community and supportive housing programs.
- Making it easier to build more affordable and non-profit housing by eliminating development-related charges for these important types of homes.
- Creating the new Homelessness Prevention Program, which simplifies access to provincial housing and homelessness supports.
Housing innovation guides
Guides about navigating the building process
As a homeowner, property owner or landlord, use these guides to navigate design and building processes. With these innovative approaches, we can help create more housing supply, including rental units, to make housing more affordable.
Guides about navigating innovative housing options
Fresh approaches to housing and homeownership give people more choices. Use these guides to explore different housing options.