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In the rowing world, as in many other sports, teamwork is essential for a crew to achieve success. After all, no member of a rowing squad is praised for the individuality of his or her effort.

Success is only possible if every person on the team pulls together and gives their best.

Our governments must treat the current housing supply and affordability crisis the same way. All three levels must work together to create conditions that will spur more residential construction activity. That means cutting the hefty costs associated with building new homes.

Governments must take the knife to taxes, fees and levies, including development charges (DCs), that are crippling the industry. The approvals process also needs to be less complicated and speedier.

There have been some positive moves. Both the federal and Ontario governments are taking steps to eliminate the sales taxes for first-time buyers of new housing up to $1 million and are decreasing it on a sliding scale for first-time buyers of new homes between $1 and $1.5 million.

This was a good start, as first-time buyers account for roughly 35 per cent of new home purchases. We are seeing indications the action has resulted in more traffic at sales centres.

First-time buyers have been particularly hard hit. The housing-cost-to-income ratio has moved beyond historic averages in recent years and the initiative will help them tremendously.

The federal Department of Finance expects the first-time buyer sales tax rebate to apply to 47,000 newly built homes annually.

Cutting the federal and provincial sales taxes will shave 13 per cent off the cost of a new home for first-time buyers. On a $1-million new home, for example, buyers would save $130,000.

However, it’s not enough.

Presently, the tax burden adds roughly 36 per cent to the cost of a new home, making them unaffordable for many.

For starters, the 13-per cent in sales taxes should be removed for buyers of all new homes – not just first-time buyers. That would light a fire, kick-start homebuilding, create jobs and boost the economy.

At a recent housing summit hosted by RESCON, we learned of the substantial toll that the decline in homebuilding will have on our economy. There is a risk of losing almost 100,000 construction jobs in Ontario alone, which would translate into an economic hit of about $10 billion.

We are in the midst of the worse housing crisis in a generation.

Sales and starts have reached historic lows. The feds have pledged to build 500,000 new housing units a year for a decade while the province is still sticking to its pledge to build 1.5 million homes between 2023 and 2031. However, latest figures show we are nowhere near reaching those goals.

The new condo market in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area is on track to record its worst year for sales in three-and-a-half decades. New condo apartment sales in the region totalled 319 units in the third quarter of 2025, the lowest quarterly total since the third quarter of 1990.

The tally for housing starts in Ontario in 2024 was well off the number needed to hit the target. And that’s with other types of housing such as nursing home units and student dorms added into the figures.

In addition to taxes, DCs add significant cost to buying a new home. The Missing Middle Initiative reports municipalities in Ontario have the highest DCs in the country.

For example, DCs for residential buildings in Toronto were raised by 46 per cent in 2022. Presently, developers pay nearly $140,000 in municipal taxes on a single-family home. DCs for smaller units range from $60,000 for a bachelor apartment to more than $80,000 for a two-bedroom unit.

The Ontario government has passed legislation that permits developers to defer DC payments to municipalities on new homes until occupancy, which provides some relief. Prior to the change, builders were required to pay DCs when a building permit was issued by the municipality.

Slow approvals are also bogging down the system and adding to the cost of new housing because developers must cover financing costs. Presently in Ontario, it takes 17.5 months to get a municipal plan amendment, 19.6 to get a zoning bylaw amendment and 31.2 months to get a plan of subdivision approved.

The Ontario building approvals process needs to be modernized and digitized province-wide with standardized measurable performance standards. 

To get a project approved in Toronto it can take more than two years. It is the second worst city in Canada for approvals. Only Hamilton is worse.

The alarm bells have been ringing for some time now and we can’t follow the same old blueprint.

It was refreshing to see both the feds and the province take co-ordinated action to lower the sales taxes for first-time buyers. That co-operation needs to continue and, in fact, be expanded to tackle the exorbitant tax burden, sloth-like approvals system, and regulatory hurdles.

Otherwise, we could be up the creek without a paddle.

Richard Lyall is president of the Residential °µÍø½ûÇøion Council of Ontario (RESCON). He has represented the building industry in Ontario since 1991. Contact him at media@rescon.com.