Ontario’s ambitious housing targets have once again fallen short, with only 13 municipalities meeting their goals in 2025. Despite expanding the definition of new housing to include basement units, long-term care beds, retirement homes, and student housing, the province achieved just 58% of its 150,000-home target. This shortfall raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the Ford government’s housing strategies.
The province has been aiming to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031, a goal described as a “soft target” by the finance minister. To accelerate progress, the government introduced the Building Faster Fund offering rewards to municipalities that met specific housing targets. However, the latest data reveals a troubling trend of declining housing starts despite increasing targets.
Declining housing starts despite rising targets
In 2023, Ontario exceeded its 110,000-home target by just under 600 units. The following year, the province managed to complete just under 95,000 of its 125,000-home target. The figure dropped further in 2025, with only 86,760 housing starts recorded against the 150,000-home target. This decline highlights the growing gap between the province’s housing ambitions and its actual achievements.
The expanded definition of housing starts included 13,693 basement units and laneway suites, 4,522 long-term care beds, 1,102 retirement homes, and 1,967 student housing units. Despite these additions, the Ontario Liberal MPP Adil Shamji criticized the government’s approach, stating, “We’ve now seen successive years of failures, and frankly, we’ve seen successively that the government seems to be falling farther and farther from its targets and being forced to revise targets, revise definitions of what even counts as housing starts.”
Municipalities struggle to meet targets
The number of municipalities hitting their targets has been declining steadily. In 2023, 20 municipalities exceeded their targets, with 12 achieving more than 80% of their goals. This number dropped to 15 in 2024, with eight municipalities reaching 80% or higher. In 2025, only 13 municipalities met their targets, with four achieving 80% or more.
Shamji highlighted the scale of the crisis, noting that 37 of the 50 municipalities participating in the Building Faster Fund fell short of their targets. “Of the 13 that did hit the target, seven of them have embarrassingly low thresholds to pass,” he added. Nine of the successful municipalities had targets of 500 new homes or fewer. For example, Sarnia exceeded its goal of 100 new homes by building 654, although almost half were new student housing units. North Bay passed its target of 100 by building 113.
Large cities fall far behind
Many of Ontario’s largest cities failed to get close to their targets. The City of Mississauga achieved just 24% of its target, while Vaughan managed 26%. Windsor notched 47% of its target, and both Toronto and Markham managed 49%. Some municipalities, including Markham, Vaughan, Mississauga, and Halton Hills, have not received any funding from the program since its launch.
Halton Hills Mayor Ann Lawlor criticized the effectiveness of the fund, stating, “I just don’t think it’s effective; the municipalities that got the money had projects that were in place, that were underway.” Lawlor suggested that the fund was designed with the wrong priorities, rewarding towns and cities for something they don’t directly control. “Municipalities don’t build housing,” she said. “We can have all kinds of plans in place. We can roll out the welcome mat. We can be ready with our building permit capacity. But it is ultimately the builders who are the ones who decide and they are driven by market forces.”
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing highlighted a series of programs designed to boost housing starts, including the Development Charge Reduction Program, the Building Faster Fund, and the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program. The ministry stated that these programs have helped municipalities lower costs, cut red tape, and get shovels in the ground sooner. They also pointed to the recent elimination of HST on new homes as a positive step.
