With affordability relief decades away, CMHC push for policy changes and construction innovations to speed up supply
Canada’s housing crisis won’t be solved overnight, and under current conditions, it could take up to 30 years for new housing supply to fully impact affordability, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
But while the process is slow, CMHC says there are ways to accelerate it – if the country is willing to rethink how housing is built.
“In a previous article, we raised the fact that, with the current resources, Canada has the potential to build many more units than we currently do,” CMHC chief economist Mathieu Laberge wrote in a blog post. “But this raised the question of how long it would take for housing units to be built and become available for low- to middle-income households.
“Recent CMHC research shows how this could take up to 30 years! This is much too long for Canadians looking for a more affordable housing option now.”
The challenge, CMHC explained, isn’t just about building more homes—it’s about reducing delays, streamlining approvals, and adopting new construction methods to make housing more attainable in the short and long term.
Why construction takes so long
Building a single multi-unit housing project in Canada is a years-long process. Before construction even begins, developers spend anywhere from three to five years on design, permits, and necessary approvals. Municipal review times add another year or more, with Toronto, Vancouver, and Montréal seeing some of the longest approval delays in the country.
Once the paperwork is in place, construction itself takes one to two years, bringing the total timeline for a new rental or multi-unit project to about seven to eight years.
But even after a project is completed, it doesn’t immediately lower housing costs. CMHC pointed to the “filtering” effect, where market-rate housing gradually becomes more affordable over time.
According to another CMHC research, this process can take up to 20 years, meaning that from design to real affordability impact, the total timeline stretches to 25 to 30 years.
“All-in-all, from design of a project to filtering that makes housing attainable, it takes 25 to 30 years before new housing supply is delivered and its full impact on lower rents or prices is felt,” Laberge said. “This is far too long for Canadians looking for an attainable housing unit option. It's much too long to see the end of our current housing crisis.”
Can social housing solve the problem?
Some argue that building more social housing would be a faster solution to affordability. CMHC acknowledged that while social housing helps, it isn’t enough to solve the crisis on its own.
Canada lags behind many developed countries in terms of social housing. Only 3.5% of the country’s housing stock is classified as social housing, compared to 7% in OECD countries and 8% in the European Union.
Bringing Canada’s social housing levels in line with OECD averages would require an additional 575,000 units—double the current total. Matching the EU average would mean adding 750,000 units. While this would provide relief, it would still fall far short of the total housing supply needed to restore affordability.
“There is no silver bullet to fix the housing crisis,” Laberge said. “Market housing takes time to become cheaper, and social housing isn't the cure some would want it to be. We need a balanced mix of housing construction at all price points to progress towards normalizing our housing sector.
“We also need to be realistic on timing.”
How can Canada build faster?
One key solution is attracting more long-term funding from pension funds and large non-profits to finance housing construction. This would ensure a steady flow of new housing, even if it doesn’t immediately accelerate construction timelines.
Regulatory delays are another major factor slowing down new housing supply. CMHC pointed to examples of municipalities using technology to streamline approvals. Kelowna, for instance, has implemented artificial intelligence to speed up building permit applications, while British Columbia is developing digital permitting systems and has removed zoning barriers for small-scale multi-unit housing.
Beyond financing and approvals, CMHC also emphasized the need for innovation in construction. Countries around the world have successfully adopted modular housing, high-rise wood frame buildings, and 3D-printed homes to build more efficiently.
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In Canada, wider adoption of these methods – along with robotics, artificial intelligence, and building information modelling (BIM) – could make projects more cost-effective and faster to complete.
“These changes will require changing the skillset of residential construction workers,” CMHC stated. “This can be done through training new candidates to the trades and retraining those who are currently active in the labour market.
“While this may take some time, it will help fix the current housing crisis and will help all Canadians.”
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