Feds say Canada's housing crisis will take "years" to fix

Dec 15 2021, 4:03 pm

Canada’s housing crisis is all too familiar to aspiring homeowners who are faced with limited inventory and exorbitantly high prices.

But there’s no quick fix in sight for the market, with Canada’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland saying on Tuesday that it will take years to fix.

“In addition to rising inflationary pressures, strong housing demand throughout the pandemic combined with limited supply has led to significantly higher house prices across the country,” reads Freeland’s 2021 Economic and Fiscal Update. However, some normalization of housing activity is expected as the pandemic subsides.

“This, in combination with increases in new housing supply, will help to slow house price growth in much of the country. However, it will take years of strong supply growth to address the acute affordability challenges Canadians are facing in some regions of the country.”

According to the fiscal report, the federal government is addressing Canada’s housing crisis by creating more housing supply through a $70 billion investment in the National Housing Strategy. This, the report says, will support the construction of up to 125,000 affordable homes across Canada.

“Addressing the issues of housing affordability is a priority for the government,” the report says.

The National Housing Strategy had previously targeted building up to 160,000 new affordable homes. It also commits to cutting chronic homelessness in half and removing 530,000 families from housing needs.

Laura HanrahanLaura Hanrahan

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