Ontario Housing Plan Aims for 1.5M New Homes by 2031

Ontario’s provincial government has put forward a new housing plan for the province, known as the More Homes Built Faster Act, that aims to build 1.5M homes in the province by 2031, including 285K homes in Toronto.

Toronto has approved about 28,000 homes per year over the past five years and an average of 15,000 units per year have been built. As of 2020, there were 167,757 proposed homes in the city’s development pipeline, meaning the units had their first planning approval, building permits or were under construction but not yet built.

The proposed housing legislation would reduce development charges on purpose-built rental construction but would offer deeper discounts of up to 25% for family-sized units.

The government is using the incentive of reduced development fees to encourage the construction of more three-bedroom, family friendly apartments.

The legislation also would loosen restrictions on higher density and add more rental possibilities in Toronto, which already allows garden, laneway and secondary suites. Homeowners would be allowed up to three units on their property under the proposed law.

For example, one residential lot could have a house with a basement suite and a laneway unit in the backyard. There would be no minimum size for the units, which each are allocated one parking space per unit.

Ontario also wants to limit third-party appeals from individuals or groups, including resident groups, who are not directly involved in zoning or planning decisions.

The More Homes Built Faster Act would eliminate third party appeal rights to the Ontario Land Tribunal and remove planning responsibilities—for both lower tier official plans and amendments and plans of subdivision from the Regions of York, Peel, Durham, Halton, Waterloo and the County of Simcoe.

The proposed law will establish an upper limit of 5% of the total number of units in a development that can be required to be affordable as part of inclusionary zoning, and a maximum period of 25 years over which the units would be required to remain affordable.

The proposal also seeks to introduce a new category of “attainable housing,” which will be defined in future regulations. The new law creates a working group to consider innovative ways of incorporating schools into high-density communities.