projects New Housing Canada will
over the next five years.
That's a 2.1 percent increase in housing starts over the PBO's baseline forecast and would meet only the 3.7 percent of units needed to address the housing shortage, according to the report released Tuesday.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
(CMHC) estimates
housing construction is set to nearly double
up to 430,000–480,000 units per year over the next decade to
to the 2019 level. The PBO estimates that 290,000 units per year will be needed to close the supply gap.
The federal agency created by Prime Minister Mark Carney in September has a mandate to scale up
.
allocated $13 billion for the new agency over the next five years.
The PBO said the agency was promised a means to double the rate of housing construction, but no such plan was presented to achieve that goal.
Of the 26,000 housing units, PBO estimates that 13,000 will be affordable housing units available to low-income households.
The federal budget also made cuts to CMHC housing programs, reducing funding by $2.4 billion from 2026-27 to 2029-30 and $860 million annually thereafter.
The PBO said funding would shift away from programs such as the Canada Housing Benefit and funding for existing social housing.
“The 13,000 new apartments available to low-income households will help improve housing affordability for residents,” the report said. “However, adding these units only partially compensates
reduction in overall accessibility support
”
In response to the report, Housing Minister Gregor Robertson said the PBO had not specified how the funding would attract private investment in housing.
“We only have an initial budget capitalization of $13 billion. We also have $51 billion for housing infrastructure, which together represents a significant investment designed to attract private investment,” he said.
• Email: [email protected]
