New home construction in Ottawa hits record high

The City of Ottawa saw more homes begin construction in 2020 than in any year since amalgamation, and the pace hasn't slowed.

The type of housing being built is also changing, as hundreds more rental units go on the market and local policies push for the city to developin a more compact way.

Ottawa is seeing far more rental apartments and townhomesthan in the past. The number of new single detachedhouses has stayed about the same, whilethe number of new condo units being built has dropped off considerably.

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The municipality's yearly report on the state of development is full of figures about what types of homes are being built,and how many people are moving into various parts of the city or out of it.

The cityalso tracks housingstarts reported by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), and they too hit a post-amalgamation record, with9,239 units beginning construction. That's a 31 per centincrease from 2019. So far, figures for 2021 show a similar number of units should begin construction this year.

The two methods for measuring construction don't quite alignbecause the CMHC figures don't capture apartments created within existing buildings, staff note.

Supply lagging, say home builders

As for the population, newer suburbs outside of the Greenbelt continue to take on the most new residents,according to the city's report. South-end communities such as Findlay Creek and Riverside South are growing especially quickly.

Staff estimate that Ottawa's population grew by 1.6 per cent last year, to 1,022,604.

The City of Ottawa also tracks how people move around the region, or leave it entirely. As in past years, itgained residents overall from other countries or provinces, but lost residents to neighbouring communities in Lanarkand Leeds-Grenville counties.

The Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association has argued that Ottawa needs to keep building enough housing for a growing population, rather than see residents move to Carleton Place and commute, for instance.

"It's great to see an increase in housing starts. We desperately need them," said Jason Burggraaf, the industry group'sexecutive director.

He expects the trend to continue, even if some construction is taking longerbecause of supply shortages and delays. Burggraaf points out thathouse prices are still rising, especiallyin the resale market.

"What that tells me is that, despite the high level of new construction activity, we're still not getting enough supply into the area to support the population growth that we have," he said.

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Dealing with the price of housing and boosting supply have been preoccupations for Ontario's Progressive Conservative government, too. Premier Doug Ford and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark have called Ontario's big city mayors to a summit on Dec. 16 to discuss the issue.

City of Ottawa staff were not available to comment on theirdevelopment report, but will present it to city councillors on theplanning committee on Monday.

During a budget discussion last week, the general manager responsible for city planning, Steve Willis, did address the heavy workload facing staff.Seven temporary positions will be added next yearto keep up with the surge in planning applications, he said.