04/23/2025
With Canada's federal election just days away on April 28th, housing remains one of our most critical challenges. As a developer, I'm genuinely torn about which housing approach would best address our crisis. Both parties have made housing a centerpiece of their campaigns, with dramatically different approaches.
Our industry is at a crossroads, and when you think things couldn't get more challenging, there always seems to be a new surprise creating unnecessary uncertainties that only compound a problem that has been debated ad nauseum.
What's being critically overlooked is the cost of delivery crisis we're facing. Construction costs have reached a tipping point where developers can no longer pass these expenses onto consumers—they've become simply unattainable for most Canadians. Developers aren't non-profit organizations—they simply won't build if they'll lose money, yet government subsidies to bridge this gap risk fueling inflation.
This cost ceiling is severely restricting new supply, which has always been a fundamental driver of affordability issues. When coupled with periods of low interest rates, we've seen how this creates a vicious cycle—temporarily masking affordability problems while ultimately driving prices even higher.
With no end in sight to rising construction costs and a constantly changing global economic and political environment, this is genuinely one of the most difficult election decisions I've faced as someone working in housing development.
Over the next six days leading up to election day, I'll share my personal analysis of both the Liberal and Conservative housing platforms and what they could mean for developers, homebuyers, renters and our housing affordability crisis.
