Where's the new housing market headed? RESCON housing summit will answer that
Sept. 10, 2026, Vaughan, Ont. - Despite a wave of housing reforms introduced over the past year, new home construction continues to struggle. Speakers at a free online housing summit hosted by the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) on Sept. 23 will dive into the numbers, look at the state of the market, and explore what needs to be done.
Housing Summit 6.0, Housing Reform: Is It Working? will bring together industry leaders, policymakers, market analysts, real estate professionals, planners and pollsters to identify gaps in policy and chart a path toward hitting housing supply targets and improving affordability.
The event will run from noon to 5 p.m. The public and media are invited to tune in. Click here to register.
Speakers at the event will provide an overview of the crisis, present the numbers, probe how tariffs will affect construction costs, explore fixes, and look at what the future holds. Speakers include Build Canada Homes CEO Ana Bailão, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board chief market analyst Jason Mercer, and Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario president and CEO Tony Irwin. Click here for the full agenda and list of speakers.
“The housing crisis is one of the greatest economic and social challenges facing our nation and must be resolved,” says RESCON president Richard Lyall. “Recent government measures have provided some much-needed help, but modest progress is not the same as success. Housing construction continues to fall far short of what is needed to restore affordability and meet future demand.
“The reality is that we remain far from solving the housing crisis. Our housing policy, taxation and approvals system needs to reflect current realities, not yesterday’s conditions.”
The housing summit comes at a particularly important time. The tax burden on housing remains too high. Taxes account for 36 per cent of the cost of a new home. In the GTA, meanwhile, municipal charges can add well over $100,000 to the cost of a new home. The approvals system is still cumbersome and lengthy. Builders continue to face lengthy and unpredictable approval timelines that add cost and uncertainty to projects. Approvals in the GTA can stretch well beyond 18 months, creating hefty carrying costs before a shovel even hits the ground.
Housing starts and completions are falling short. Ontario, for example, is nowhere near reaching the goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031. About 1.24 million more homes would have to be built by then. Completions and starts total around 260,000 units since 2022. To hit the target, Ontario would need over 218,000 starts per year for the remaining timeline.
CMHC’s fall housing supply report indicated that Toronto must increase annual housing starts by at least 50 per cent over the next decade to restore affordability to pre-pandemic levels.
“These numbers are an eye-opener and should spur policymakers and governments at all levels to align their policies to support Ontario’s homebuilding industry, particularly by lowering the tax burden, reducing red tape and speeding up the cumbersome approvals process,” says Lyall. “While some steps have been taken, the seriousness of the crisis requires quick and decisive action to make temporary HST rebates and development charge reductions permanent. The potential economic consequences of doing nothing could be devastating.”
Sponsors of the event are the Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, Enbridge, and LiUNA Local 183.
RESCON is the province’s leading association of residential builders committed to providing leadership and fostering innovation in the industry.
For more information:
Grant Cameron
Senior Director of Public Affairs
RESCON
905-638-1706