2024 off to a slow start for home builds

Construction rate has tumbled 56 per cent in Waterloo Region

The construction of new homes continues to falter in this region despite government pledges to ramp it up.

The latest data released Friday shows housing starts fell by more than half over January and February compared to the same months a year ago in Waterloo Region.

This is at odds with national data showing housing starts in Canada are up 11 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. In this region, they fell 56 per cent.

A new home is started when the foundation is poured. There have been 349 homes started this year in this region compared to 799 homes started in 2023, according to construction tracked by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Builders, governments and analysts have variously blamed the housing slowdown on lengthy municipal approvals, rising construction costs, labour shortages, and higher borrowing costs that are sending buyers and builders to the sidelines.

Housing starts this year in the region include 211 row homes, mostly in Cambridge, and 102 apartments that are almost all in Kitchener.

Waterloo, facing the biggest housing slump, has seen just 15 homes started so far this year.

This region is aiming to add 70,000 homes across three cities by 2031, to help ease a housing crisis that has escalated rents and costs and contributes to homelessness.

That effort is not going well as construction starts on new homes have declined two years in a row.

Last year, 4,847 new homes were started in the region. This compares to a 24-year peak of 5,602 new homes that were started in 2021.

Last December saw a brief spike when 1,417 new apartments were started at sites in Kitchener. Despite that spike, housing starts are trending 10 per cent below the annual pace needed to achieve provincial housing goals.