July 14, 2026 – Most homebuyers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) prefer ground-related housing, such as single-detached homes, yet land-use planning policies have favoured apartment construction for much of the past two decades, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute report. In “Room to Grow: Building More of the Housing Homebuyers Want,” […]
Le 14 juillet 2026 – La majorité des acheteurs de logements dans la région du Grand Toronto et de Hamilton (RGTH) préfèrent les logements avec entrée privée, comme les maisons individuelles, mais les politiques d’aménagement du territoire ont favorisé la construction d’immeubles d’habitation pendant la majeure partie des deux dernières décennies, selon un nouveau rapport […]
by Frank Clayton Surveys consistently show that most homebuyers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, including first-time and immigrant households, prefer ground-related housing, particularly single-detached homes and more affordable substitutes such as semi-detached homes, townhouses, and stacked townhouses. Yet the types of housing being built in the region have become increasingly misaligned with these […]
Published in The Globe and Mail. Canadians approaching retirement are wealthier, on paper, than any previous generation. Statistics Canada’s Survey of Financial Security shows that, between 1999 and 2023, the net worth of people aged 55 to 64 rose by 91 per cent on average, from around $457,000 to more than $873,000, after adjusting for […]
Year-over-year shelter inflation fell to 1.7 percent in January 2026 – the first reading below the Bank of Canada’s 2 percent target since early 2021. Disaggregating shelter inflation reveals that the recent disinflation is largely driven by a slowdown in owned accommodation price growth, reflecting lower mortgage interest costs following rate cuts by the Bank […]
From: Tasnim Fariha To: Housing observers Date: February 18, 2026Re: Discipline Needed to Bring Innovation Into New Housing Construction Build Canada Homes promises to help transform Canada’s housing industry by supporting innovative building methods, such as factory-built housing. This is encouraging, but is more complicated than it looks. First, it is important to recognize that factory-built […]
February 17, 2026 – Current regulatory, financial, and structural barriers are constraining new housing supply, raising costs for both buyers and renters, and increasing long-term economic risks, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute The Institute’s Housing Policy Working Group finds that Canada’s housing affordability crisis is being worsened by the way […]
The C.D. Howe Institute launched the Housing Policy Working Group in the fall of 2025 to examine the regulatory, financial, and structural barriers limiting Canada’s housing supply and to build momentum in support of actionable policy solutions. The Working Group includes a cross-sectional, nationwide membership drawn from the land development, finance, construction, real estate, and […]
Published in The Hill Times. Build Canada Homes promises to help transform Canada’s housing industry by supporting innovative building methods, such as factory-built housing. This is encouraging, but it requires a deeper understanding of the problem it seeks to solve. First, it is important to recognize that factory-built housing is a tool, not a cure-all for […]
Published in The Hill Times. As Canada races to fix its housing affordability crisis, one issue is consistently treated as an afterthought: how to close the housing supply gap without creating higher residential greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. With the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) estimating […]
In Ontario, while Toronto accounted for a large share of housing starts in 2024, so too did mid-sized cities, including London and Kingston. As previous C.D. Howe Institute research has shown, making these kinds of cities more attractive places to work and live will have a dual benefit of also helping to contribute to alleviating housing affordability issues in […]
House price growth surged after the Bank of Canada cut the overnight rate to its effective lower bound in March 2020. As the Bank raised the overnight rate to 5 percent, house price growth fell, eventually leading to declines in house prices themselves. Despite a steady reduction of the overnight rate to 2.5 percent over […]
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by Frank Clayton Surveys consistently show that most homebuyers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, including first-time and immigrant households, prefer ground-related housing, particularly single-detached homes and more affordable substitutes such as semi-detached homes, townhouses, and stacked townhouses. Yet the types of housing being built in the region have become increasingly misaligned with these […] 
Published in The Globe and Mail. Canadians approaching retirement are wealthier, on paper, than any previous generation. Statistics Canada’s Survey of Financial Security shows that, between 1999 and 2023, the net worth of people aged 55 to 64 rose by 91 per cent on average, from around $457,000 to more than $873,000, after adjusting for […] 
Year-over-year shelter inflation fell to 1.7 percent in January 2026 – the first reading below the Bank of Canada’s 2 percent target since early 2021. Disaggregating shelter inflation reveals that the recent disinflation is largely driven by a slowdown in owned accommodation price growth, reflecting lower mortgage interest costs following rate cuts by the Bank […] 
From: Tasnim Fariha To: Housing observers Date: February 18, 2026Re: Discipline Needed to Bring Innovation Into New Housing Construction Build Canada Homes promises to help transform Canada’s housing industry by supporting innovative building methods, such as factory-built housing. This is encouraging, but is more complicated than it looks. First, it is important to recognize that factory-built […] 
The C.D. Howe Institute launched the Housing Policy Working Group in the fall of 2025 to examine the regulatory, financial, and structural barriers limiting Canada’s housing supply and to build momentum in support of actionable policy solutions. The Working Group includes a cross-sectional, nationwide membership drawn from the land development, finance, construction, real estate, and […] 
Published in The Hill Times. Build Canada Homes promises to help transform Canada’s housing industry by supporting innovative building methods, such as factory-built housing. This is encouraging, but it requires a deeper understanding of the problem it seeks to solve. First, it is important to recognize that factory-built housing is a tool, not a cure-all for […] 
Published in The Hill Times. As Canada races to fix its housing affordability crisis, one issue is consistently treated as an afterthought: how to close the housing supply gap without creating higher residential greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. With the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) estimating […] 
In Ontario, while Toronto accounted for a large share of housing starts in 2024, so too did mid-sized cities, including London and Kingston. As previous C.D. Howe Institute research has shown, making these kinds of cities more attractive places to work and live will have a dual benefit of also helping to contribute to alleviating housing affordability issues in […] 
House price growth surged after the Bank of Canada cut the overnight rate to its effective lower bound in March 2020. As the Bank raised the overnight rate to 5 percent, house price growth fell, eventually leading to declines in house prices themselves. Despite a steady reduction of the overnight rate to 2.5 percent over […]