The Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) is a long way from its goal of 35,000 housing starts per year to create affordable housing in the greater Montreal area.
This is the observation of the Montreal Economic Institute (IEDM), based on recent data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC): In the first five months of 2023, just 5,019 housing units were commissioned in the greater Montreal area.
However, meeting the CMM target would have required 14,583 housing starts in the first five months of the year, the MEI noted, noting that 11,000 units had started construction in the same period of 2022.
“It took five months to start as many housing projects in the metro area as we should have started in 52 days,” said Gabriel Giguère, policy analyst at MEI.
“Basically, we’re 100 days behind where we should be,” said Mr. Giguère, noting that the delay seen in metro Quebec contrasts with increases in housing starts in Toronto and Vancouver.
“Toronto and Vancouver struggle with the same interest rates and labor shortages that we do, and yet manage to increase housing starts,” he said.