Less Than 10 Percent of Toronto’s 19,700 Approved Affordable Rentals Were Built

A for sale sign is displayed outside a home in Toronto on Dec. 13, 2021. (Reuters/Carlos Osorio)

Among the roughly 19,700 affordable rental units approved by the Toronto City Council since 2017, about 8 percent—or 1,617 of them—have been built, according to a new database.

The numbers were released on March 21 as part of a new project called the Housing Data Hub, which tracks Toronto’s home creation progress, the city hall said in a statement. The Hub tracks all affordable rental homes in the development pipeline with approval from city council, including projects that have received financial aid through city programs like Open Door or Housing Now.

The data provided through the Hub aims to improve “accountability and transparency,” and will track the city’s progress toward the goal of creating 40,000 affordable rental and supportive homes as laid out in the HousingTO 2020–2030 Action Plan.

Approvals granted over the past six years have nearly reached the halfway mark, with 19,567 affordable rental units approved since 2017.

However, just 1,617 of those units approved since 2017 have been completed, while 2,964 units are under construction. The remaining majority of over 15,000 units are not yet under construction, according to the Hub’s housing data.

The data reflects the years of delay in the city’s affordable housing projects—obstructed by the COVID-19 pandemic and followed by rising interest and construction costs.

The new data underscores the challenges at play in a city where even marquee city hall affordable housing efforts like Housing Now have been battered by years-long delays—first attributed to the pandemic, and later to forces like rising interest and construction costs, said Abi Bond, the City of Toronto’s housing secretariat.

“Although nothing will ever be built that isn’t approved, it’s also true that you can’t live in an approval,” Bond told The Toronto Star. She noted that with rising interest rates, all housing projects are facing roadblocks, particularly for the less profitable affordable housing.

Toronto’s definition of affordable rentals varies immensely—it could be from a heavily subsidized unit that can provide a home to the city’s lowest income residents, or a rental unit listed at exactly the average market rate. In 2023, Toronto’s average market rent for a bachelor apartment is $1,317 per month, $1,538 for a one-bedroom apartment, and $1,811 for a two-bedroom unit, according to city hall data.