The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Region could be short 165,600 homes by 2041 if it doesn’t rightsize its housing supply to give families more space and build places that will induce seniors to downsize. Failure to do so could skew the population to an older demographic and impede its prosperity by discouraging younger, skilled workers, says a new study.The study means the area could potentially be short as many homes as the current number of existing households in Brampton; about two and half as many as Oakville, and enough housing to accommodate about three years’ worth of the population growth that is forecast by Ontario’s anti-sprawl Places to Grow smart growth plan.The risk of not reaching the 7,200 homes a year the growth plan suggests are needed would equate to a $1.95-billion loss in GDP connected to housing construction, says the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA).Only 15 per cent of the region’s homes are the lowrise apartments and townhomes, a housing category known as the “missing middle,” that provide affordable alternatives to the polarized mix of highrises and single-detached houses that dominate Toronto’s housing mix, says the study prepared by CANCEA for the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO).“Despite Places to Grow, there has been very little shift to a provision of medium-density housing,” said RCCAO executive director Andy Manahan.Although some municipalities such as Mississauga are moving to higher density homes with condos, some types of housing are still not being built. He said developers say it is easier to build on greenfields than already built areas.Read more: The GTA’s population is booming — but not necessarily in the right placesBoosting supply is no. 1 job, Ontario’s housing minister saysOpinion | Christopher Hume: On housing, Toronto is slow to grasp the difference between controlling change and stifling it“They ...
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