Minister Says Home Prices Must Fall to Restore Affordability After Opposition Questions Earlier Remarks

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Oct. 20, 2025. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says the average price of homes in Canada needs to fall to restore affordability, as he faced questions from the Opposition about his earlier remarks that property values should be maintained.

Robertson appeared before the House of Commons finance committee on Oct. 20 to answer questions from MPs about his government’s affordability legislation, Bill C-4.

Conservative MP Aaron Gunn noted Robertson previously said he did not believe housing prices needed to come down in Canada and asked the minister whether he still held the same view.

“To be clear, we need to see average prices of housing for Canadians come down,” Robertson replied. “We need to build a lot more non-market housing to bring down that average cost.”

When it comes to restoring housing affordability, Robertson said his government’s focus is on increasing the supply of affordable housing.

The minister was asked by a reporter in May about whether he believed home prices needed to decrease, to which Robertson replied “no.”

“I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable—it’s a huge part of our economy,” Robertson told the reporter, noting his government’s commitment to doubling construction and focusing on “the affordable side.”

Conservative MP and housing critic Scott Aitchison reacted to Robertson’s comments in May, saying the housing minister “couldn’t be more wrong” and that bringing prices down in Canada was necessary to “restore the dream of homeownership.”

Following criticism about his comments, Robertson clarified on social media that his remarks were in response to a question about reducing the price of a family’s current home, which he noted is the “most valuable asset” for most Canadians.

“The question wasn’t ‘should homes be more affordable?’ Of course they should,” Robertson said in a May 14 X post.

The minister told MPs at the Oct. 20 committee meeting that his government’s proposed measure in Bill C-4 to waive up to $50,000 in federal taxes on the cost of a new home for first-time homebuyers, as well as Ottawa’s new Build Canada Homes agency, which he said will help restore affordability in the market in the years to come.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced $13 billion in funding to create Build Canada Homes last month. Robertson said the new federal agency will finance and build affordable housing on government-owned land for low- and middle-income households.

Housing Starts

Under the Build Canada Homes initiative, the federal government has pledged to double the rate of residential construction to reach 500,000 new homes built per year.

During the finance committee meeting, Conservative MP Jasraj Singh Hallan asked Robertson when he expects Canada to begin building 500,000 homes per year, noting to achieve that goal the government would need to build 57 homes per hour each day.

The housing minister responded that “Canada is not building at that scale” and said construction will need to be ramped up over the next 10 years to achieve the goal.

“That is a longer term goal,” Robertson said. “We’re looking at over a decade doubling construction up to that level ... That certainly will take many years to achieve, given the changes that need to be made in the industry.”

The minister said Canada doesn’t currently have the labour force to manufacture at that scale, adding that the goal is “very aggressive and ambitious,” but “reasonable.”

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s latest data indicates the moving 6-month average for housing starts increased by 4.1 percent in September to 277,147 units.

For areas with a population of 10,000 or greater, the organization says housing starts were up 19 percent in September compared to the same time last year, with 22,375 units recorded this September compared to 18,806 recorded in September 2024.

Carolina Avendano and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.