Just The Facts: Housing Starts Continue Decline Under Carney-Trudeau Liberals
March 17, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ottawa, ON — The Carney-Trudeau Liberals have failed to build the homes Canadians need, making rent, mortgages and downpayments more expensive for everyone. This was confirmed today by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which found that housing starts in Canadian cities with over 10,000 people has declined 17 percent year-over-year, from February 2024 to February 2025.
Meanwhile, our largest cities saw housing starts in February fall off a cliff, with Vancouver’s dropping 48 percent and Toronto seeing a staggering 68 percent decline compared to February 2024. This will make these already unaffordable cities even more expensive. As a direct result of the Liberal’s failure to build homes, benchmark housing prices rose in February to $1,188,400 in Vancouver and $1,063,300 in Toronto.
It’s not just our largest cities, as Kelowna, London and Halifax saw housing starts collapse 67 percent, 58 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Across Nova Scotia, starts plummeted 42 percent, while Ontario saw a 36 percent drop, and British Columbia had a 34 percent decline.
As a whole, the year is off to a worse start as Canada started building 6 percent fewer homes in January and February than in 2024. The biggest decreases were in Saint John, Trois-Rivieres and London with each building 85 percent, 66 percent and 64 fewer homes.
Windsor saw housing starts drop 57 percent while Toronto also saw a 56 percent decline. In Western Canada, Victoria’s housing starts collapsed by 46 percent with Vancouver declining 18 percent and Saskatoon experiencing a 15 percent fall in new housing construction.
After a decade of the Carney-Trudeau Liberals, housing has never been more expensive. Giving this Liberal Government a fourth term won’t bring any change. Only Common Sense Conservatives will build the homes by firing the gatekeepers, axing the sales tax on new homes, and tying federal infrastructure dollars to housing completions.
