RESCON will be driving major reforms in the months ahead

By Richard Lyall

July 11, 2026

Where does housing reform go from here? It’s the million-dollar question.

The RESCON team has been driving change, and all the major issues have been cracked, but the job is far from done.  

Politicians like Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack in Ontario have demonstrated extraordinary leadership on a most difficult portfolio.  

But where do we stand now in the broad-based effort to rebalance housing supply and costs with demand?

The following is what we will be driving, recognizing that housing is a core need (along with security and food).

Housing is fundamental to our economic prosperity and well-being. Yet it is still viewed as an economic “want” by many. It isn't and we must stop taxing it and creating barriers to supply as if it were.  

Latest figures show that we are still in no danger of hitting the housing supply targets set by governments.

Cutting immigration, meanwhile, is also only a temporary measure due to our aging population and record-low birth rates.

Toronto’s fertility rate has fallen to just 1.11 children per woman, well below Canada’s already low national rate of 1.25 and far beneath the replacement level of 2.1 needed to sustain population levels.

The house price-to-income ratio, meanwhile, must be reduced, as it has roughly doubled over the past 25 years. Around the turn of the millennium, a home generally cost about three to four times a household’s annual income. By 2021-22, that ratio had climbed to seven to nine times income in many urban markets. Even after higher interest rates cooled prices somewhat, affordability remains dramatically worse than historical norms.

So, what is left that needs to be done?

1. HST - Recent moves to provide an HST rebate on new housing were welcomed by RESCON. But they are temporary and need to be made permanent. Such a move would boost the housing market.

2. DC reductions - Again, recently announced measures were welcome, but are also temporary and must be made permanent. Under the joint Canada-Ontario Development Charge Reduction Program, participating municipalities receive federal and provincial funding to cut residential development charges by 30 to 50 per cent or more for a three-year period.

3. Building code and regulatory reform - Ontario has kicked this off, which is very positive, and RESCON will be advocating for reforms. We need to remove arbitrary restrictions so that single staircases are allowed in mid-level apartment buildings, and remove restrictions on floor plate sizes and angular planes of mid-rise buildings. The issues have been raised for years and it’s time to just get it done.

4. Modernization and streamlining of approvals - Builders are still being hammered by inefficient and often-pointless red tape. These are typically services they’re paying for to get things built. The monopoly service providers are under little pressure to be efficient, but the costs to consumers are real. We should be a leading jurisdiction in the developed world on this, but we remain near last place. That's unacceptable if we aspire to be leaders.  

5. Stress test and foreign buyer restrictions - These need to be ended with a few considerations. They were introduced to cool demand during the COVID years, but times have changed. The ban is set to expire Jan. 1, 2027. Ottawa should let the restrictions lapse or, better yet, remove them immediately for newly constructed housing.

6. Land transfer taxes - This is another out of control tax which, in Toronto's case, is particularly onerous. The taxes need to be eliminated.  

RESCON will be driving these further reforms as hard as we can. We have a fall budget coming and further legislation - all while the U.S. administration continues to renege on deals that were negotiated in good faith. We can't compete and attract investment without housing to support it.