Build 500,000 new purpose-built rental units by 2030 by eliminating federal development charges on rental construction, fast-tracking zoning reform, and ending speculative foreign ownership of residential property.
Housing in Canada has become a crisis of government's own making. Shelter costs rose 27.4% from March 2020 to February 2025 — significantly faster than the 19.3% increase in overall inflation over the same period.
In Ottawa, average monthly rents now sit around $1,850 — representing roughly 26% of the average household income. That figure sounds manageable until you account for the fact that wages have not kept pace, and that the same unit cost $400 less just four years ago. Across Ontario, average rents are $2,158 with a 33.5% rent-to-income ratio — well above the 30% threshold that CMHC uses to define housing stress.
The Royal Bank of Canada forecasts that more than half of the 1.9 million new Canadian households expected to form by 2030 will be unable to afford homeownership. Of those, 40% are also expected to fall short of being able to afford market rents. This is not a coastal city problem. It is a national problem that is hitting Ottawa families, Ontario workers, and Canadians in every province.
This is not primarily a problem of supply in the abstract. Canada has the lowest number of dwellings per capita among G7 countries. The problem is that regulatory barriers — development charges, restrictive zoning, lengthy permitting processes that are among the longest in the world — make it uneconomical to build the types of housing Canadians actually need: modest, affordable, purpose-built rental units close to employment.
Select your city, enter your rent and income, and see what share of your income rent takes.
Average rent presets: CMHC 2025 Rental Market Report. The ratio above is computed from the figures you enter — rent against gross income — and is not CMHC’s shelter-cost-to-income measure.
Eliminate federal development charges on purpose-built rental construction. Development charges can add $100,000 or more to the cost of a single unit. We would eliminate the federal portion on purpose-built rental developments of ten units or more.
Fast-track zoning reform. We would attach this condition to federal housing funding: municipalities receiving it would approve as-of-right construction of rental buildings of six storeys or fewer within 90 days.
End speculative foreign ownership. We would make permanent and expand the foreign buyer restrictions currently in place, closing the trust and corporation loopholes.
Convert underused federal land to housing. We would mandate conversion of suitable federal land sites to non-market rental housing within three years.
Development charge elimination: ~$400M/year revenue reduction. Land conversion: $2B upfront, recoverable over 30 years. Funded by redirecting $1.5B/year from the First Home Savings Account toward rental supply.