Housing starts in Cambridge may be trending up this fall, but they still lag far behind a housing target established by the province.
As of Oct. 20, the City of Cambridge has issued building permits for 907 units this year with over 665 of those units actively under construction, said deputy city manager for community development Hardy Bromberg in an email to CambridgeToday.
That's an increase of 60 units from August.
As of July 31, the city has approved 1,522 dwelling units through various stages of planning approvals, Bromberg said.
Despite getting shovels in the ground on close to 1,000 units, the city won't come close to hitting its annual 2,100-unit housing target this year. That target is based on the city's pledge to the provincial government to get 19,000 new homes built by 2031.
The city's share of the province's goal to build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years is about 1.2 per cent.
In August, Premier Doug Ford said the province will give municipalities that meet at least 80 per cent of their yearly housing targets a portion of a new three-year $1.2 billion Building Faster Fund, with bonuses if they exceed 100 per cent.
Cambridge would be eligible for $4.8 million if it hits 100 per cent, which is unlikely because of its slow start to the year.
The money is being used by the province as an incentive to replace a portion of what municipalities lost when development charges were removed or discounted as part of Bill 23.
In Cambridge, the estimated loss in development charges this year was over $1 million.
Bromberg told CambridgeToday in August that various factors affecting the housing market, including Bank of Canada interest rate hikes, supply shortages, and labour shortages, means the city's hands are tied beyond granting development approvals and issuing building permits.
He said the housing sector is cyclical and meeting targets on a monthly or even annual basis is unlikely.
Despite those negative pressures on the market, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported a positive trend across the country last week.
Housing starts were higher in September according to CMHC, which reported 254,006 units built last month, up 3.9 per cent from 244,511 units in August.
In an Oct. 18 press release, CMHC said the trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly SAAR of total housing starts for all areas in Canada.
The monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of total housing starts for all areas in Canada increased 8 per cent in September's 270,466 units, compared to August's 250,383 units.
The monthly SAAR of total urban (centres 10,000 population and over) housing starts increased 9 per cent, with 250,766 units recorded in September.
Multi-unit urban starts increased 10 per cent to 207,689 units, while single-detached urban starts increased 3 per cent to 43,077 units in September.
Total SAAR housing starts were up 98 per cent in Montreal and 20 per cent in Toronto in September, while Vancouver recorded a decrease of 17 per cent, driven by declines in both single-detached, down 12 per cent, and multi-unit, down 18 per cent.
