New housing struggles to catch up to Waterloo region's population surge

Waterloo region experienced its highest population growth ever in 2023 with more than 28,000 new residents calling the cities and townships home for the first time last year. 

The numbers are laid out in a 2023 growth and development report heading to the region's planning and works committee Tuesday.

It shows the population surge was due largely to the influx of international students and new development, which doubled the 5-year average and more than tripled the 10-year average.

Since 2006, only the year 2022, with the addition of about 16,000 new residents, and 2017, at just under 15,000 new residents, comes anywhere close to what was experienced last year.

The region also had a record year for total construction value, with over $1.9 billion spent on new homes and industrial expansion. 

But that building growth, which saw more than 6,000 residential building permits issued across all seven municipalities, wasn't quite enough to keep up with demand.

In Cambridge, with a 10-year-provincial-housing target of 19,000 new units, progress has been made on 2,250 new homes since 2022. 

Last year saw 1,043 new homes started in the city.

So far this year, Cambridge has seen starts on 145 new homes, working toward a 2024 target of 1,583 starts.

Kitchener, with a 10-year target of 35,000 new homes, has seen 6,817 new housing starts since 2022. 

Last year there were 3,579 new homes started in Kitchener. This year's goal is 2,917 and 290 new units have been started to date.

In Waterloo, 1,578 new units have been built since 2022 on the way to a 16,000 10-year target.

Last year there were 635 new homes started in Waterloo. This year has seen 15 new housing starts on the way to a 2024 goal of 1,333. 

Overall in Waterloo region, plans of subdivisions account for new supply of 38,898 units, but 14,752 of those are pending, 15,978 are draft approved and 8,168 are registered but not yet built.

Accessory apartments comprised almost 20 per cent of residential permit activity in 2023. 

The region's community planning department reviewed, commented on and/or issued approvals on over 1,100 development related applications across all the area municipalities.

They included approval of 31 official plan amendments, draft approval of 11 plans of subdivision and 15 plans of condominium, and registration of 17 plans of subdivision and 34 plans of condominium.

The region says it's implementing a digital development tracking system to transform the development application review process. It will reduce processing times by 25 per cent and cut administrative related tasks by in half.