Unlike the struggling housing market in many US cities, Rachelle Younglai of The Globe and Mail reports that Toronto has seen an increase in the number of housing units that exceeds the city’s population growth over the past five years. “The number of private dwellings in the Toronto area increased by 7%, to 2,394,205, between 2016 and 2021. Meanwhile, the area’s population grew by 4.6%, to 6,202,225 residents, according to census figures, which were released on Wednesday. .”
This matches Canadian national trends: “Across the country, the number of private dwellings – which include houses and condos – climbed 5.7%, to 16,284,235, between 2016 and 2021, according to the census. During the same period, the population increased by 5.2%, reaching 36,991,981 people. »
Despite this apparent abundance, home prices in Toronto have risen 52% over the past two years, writes Younglai, with similar trends in other major cities across Canada. For some experts, this indicates that an adequate supply of housing is not necessarily enough to reduce costs.
The article suggests that the higher number of units could be attributed to an increase in the number of single-person households, which for the first time exceeds couples with children in the Canadian census.