Housing starts in Cambridge took a tumble in 2024 as interest rates, inflation and the weak economy kept developers from moving forward on projects already in the pipeline.
Only 594 new units were started or completed in Cambridge in 2024, a number that equates to 37.52 per cent of the city's goal of 1,583 housing starts.
It's not for lack of trying. Council approved more than 4,100 residential units this year alone, said Cambridge deputy city manager Hardy Bromberg.
"Whether a builder decides whether to start construction or not I think our council has been very supportive in terms of creating more units just by the fact of issuing approvals," Bromberg said. "I think that's pretty significant."
"Our message has always been pretty consistent. The city doesn't go and physically build homes. We provide the foundation and planning approval to allow builders to do that," he added.
Cambridge wasn't alone in the dismal showing for new residential units during a housing crisis. It was a bad year for new housing in nearly every municipality in Ontario.
Recently released data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation shows that from January to October 2024, Ontario started 13,000 fewer homes than the previous period last year while the rest of Canada started 14,000 more homes.
Kitchener, one of the stars last year, cracked the top 20 for housing starts this year but only achieved 58 per cent of its goal of 2,917 new homes.
Waterloo fared slightly better reaching 61.4 per cent of its goal, and Guelph got to 56.3 per cent of its goal of starting 1,500 new homes.
"It's not just city wide or region wide. This is a larger, broader economic issue," said Bromberg citing the usual factors like material costs and interest rates for the poor results.
The building downturn of 2024 is expected to stretch into the latter part of 2025 with a weak general economy and high interest rates expected to keep developers from breaking ground on projects that have been ready to go for years.
"We're hopeful maybe by the end of 2025 and certainly by 2026 that things will turn around for the building industry and we'll at least get caught up a little bit in terms of housing needs," Bromberg said.
Last year the city pledged to get 19,000 new homes built by 2031, a goal laid out by the province in 2022.
Since then, there have been 2,876 new houses either built or started in Cambridge, despite council approving over 6,200 units in that time.
"I've been consistent in saying don't judge us on a per year basis," Bromberg said. "Judge us at the end of that timeline because there are certain things that are out of our control. It's tough for a lot of municipalities right now."
The city is hoping the recent addition of an incentive program to offset construction costs for additional rental units will encourage residents to add to the city's housing stock.
As to why Kitchener and Waterloo appear to be closer to their targets, Bromberg said light rail transit is an obvious factor in attracting investment in higher-density housing.
"With an LRT right there, it really makes it a little bit more attractive for the private sector to build a high rise condominium or apartment building," he said.
Cambridge, on the other hand, offers unique features like a river running through each of its core areas, and Blair, which is its own heritage conservation district.
"Those are four pretty significant and pretty cool places to live and to invest. Every community offers some different things. I think Cambridge's time will come. We certainly have a lot of excellent opportunities to invest."
