Why Ontario’s Housing Crisis Isn’t Just About Supply

Ontario’s housing crisis has often been framed as a matter of limited supply, but the truth is more layered. While a shortage of homes does drive competition and elevate prices, deeper forces are at work. Reports from the Canadian Urban Institute and the Ontario Housing Affordability Task Force continue to highlight the need for construction, but affordability remains out of reach for much of the population. Even as new builds rise, many are aimed at high-income buyers rather than families seeking affordable entry points.

Wages are simply not keeping up. According to various reports from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, home prices in Toronto have surged more than 300 percent since the 1990s, while median income growth has barely moved. The National Bank reported in 2021 that a typical household saving 10 percent of its income would need 24 years to afford a down payment. Back in 1992, that same goal would have taken only two years. This gulf underscores how housing inequality is being driven by income stagnation.

A major contributor to this imbalance is financialization. Housing has become a vehicle for wealth accumulation by investors and wealthy multi-property owners. Teranet’s market insight reports show that speculative activity continues to distort the market, making it even harder for young people and newcomers to enter. As homes are increasingly treated like stock market assets, long-term affordability deteriorates. Access is now often tied to generational wealth, which many families simply do not have.

Public and social housing construction has also fallen behind. Since the 1990s, the federal government has dramatically scaled back investments in public housing, leading to more than 100,000 missing units, according to the Homeless Hub. Rising rents and a lack of affordable rental options have created a situation where lower-income Canadians face real insecurity, and in many cases, homelessness.

For more updates on real estate and housing affordability, visit WeeklyVoice.com and browse the Canada news section. Solving this crisis requires more than allowing the market to correct itself. It calls for coordinated policy, regulation, and a national commitment to treating housing as a human right, not a commodity.