‘Rental apartment construction was supposed to fix Canada’s housing crisis, but developers are struggling - and the pain is spreading’

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Summary

This Globe and Mail article highlights how developers across Canada are pulling back from rental apartment projects, despite federal and provincial efforts to boost construction. Rising interest rates, escalating construction costs, and difficulties in securing financing have made many rental projects financially unfeasible. Programs meant to incentivize new rental supply, such as tax breaks and loans, have not been sufficient to offset these pressures.

As a result, instead of expanding the rental stock to address Canada’s housing crisis, projects are being delayed or canceled. Analysts warn this will worsen affordability issues since supply will fall short of demand.

Comment on this Article

This situation underscores how fragile housing supply policies can be when financial and planning realities are ignored. Blanket upzoning and the erosion of restrictive covenants are being presented as “quick fixes,” but as this article shows, even large-scale supply-side measures often fail when they lack grounding in solid planning, financing, and community trust.