{"id":26683,"date":"2025-10-28T11:11:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=26683"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:41:48","slug":"average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2025\/10\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Average Price of Housing Must Fall to Restore Affordability in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">OTTAWA \u2014 Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says the average price of housing \u2014 not necessarily individual home values \u2014 must fall to restore affordability in Canada.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robertson was before the House of Commons finance committee on Monday answering MPs&#8217; questions about the Liberal government&#8217;s affordability legislation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He acknowledged in his opening remarks that Canada faces a &#8220;housing crisis&#8221; but argued the federal Liberals are taking action to lower the cost of a home and boost the housing supply.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Conservative MP Aaron Gunn asked the minister if he still believes home prices don&#8217;t need to fall in Canada, citing comments Robertson made after he was sworn into cabinet in May.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robertson focused on average home prices in his response.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cTo be clear, we need to see average prices of housing for Canadians come down. We have to build a lot more non-market housing to bring down that average cost,&#8221; he said Monday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When he was asked in May whether he felt home prices needed to come down, Robertson said &#8220;no.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable. It&#8217;s a huge part of our economy, but we need to be delivering more affordable housing,&#8221; he said at the time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Housing affordability has been a central issue on Parliament Hill for years, thanks to a rapid rise in home prices over the past few decades that boxed many would-be buyers out of home ownership.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The non-profit Generation Squeeze, which advocates for generational fairness in government policy, said in a 2022 report that the average number of years Canadians needed to save up for a 20% down payment on a typical home increased to 17 years in 2021, up from seven years in 2001.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The situation was even bleaker in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver, where the average homebuyer had to save for 27 years to put down a payment on a local home as of 2021.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Generation Squeeze found at the time that the average national home price would need to fall $341,000 \u2014 or full-time earnings would need to double \u2014 to allow the typical young person to afford a mortgage on a representative home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Paul Kershaw, founder of Generation Squeeze, recently told The Canadian Press that the number of years needed to save for a down payment in 2024 stood closer to 13.7 on a national basis following a post-pandemic decline in average home prices across Canada.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Much of Robertson&#8217;s time before the committee Monday was spent defending the previous Liberal government&#8217;s housing record and his own tenure as mayor of Vancouver from 2008 to 2018, a period that saw substantial appreciation in local home values.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robertson said his experience in Vancouver showed him the many challenges in how housing &#8220;works at the local level.&#8221; He said he understood how to work between municipal, provincial and federal housing authorities to get affordable homes built.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also said home prices were already escalating, particularly on the West Coast, before either his election or the election of Justin Trudeau&#8217;s first Liberal government in 2015.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Housing has become less affordable probably since the day I was born. By nature, it has increased over many decades,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robertson said population growth is a factor in housing affordability but did not answer directly when asked whether he believes federal immigration policy in the past decade has make homes less affordable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robertson argued that the Liberal government&#8217;s Bill C-4 \u2014 the stated topic for his appearance at committee \u2014 would help Canadians break into the ownership market.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That legislation includes a proposal for first-time homebuyers to receive up to $50,000 in federal tax relief on a new home worth up to $1 million. The GST break diminishes for more expensive homes up to $1.5 million.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Liberal government estimates the tax break would apply to nearly 47,000 new homes each year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robertson also said Ottawa&#8217;s new Build Canada Homes agency will help to restore affordability in the market in the years to come by building out the kind of non-market housing Canada has lacked in recent decades.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biv.com\/news\/average-home-price-must-fall-in-canada-to-restore-affordability-minister-says-11372122\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federal Housing Minister : Average Home Price Must Fall in Canada to Restore Affordability<\/a> by Craig Lord | The Canadian Press | BIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OTTAWA \u2014 Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says the average price of housing \u2014 not necessarily individual home values \u2014 must fall to restore affordability in Canada. Robertson was before &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2025\/10\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-updates","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Average Price of Housing Must Fall to Restore Affordability in Canada &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2025\/10\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Average Price of Housing Must Fall to Restore Affordability in Canada &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"OTTAWA \u2014 Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says the average price of housing \u2014 not necessarily individual home values \u2014 must fall to restore affordability in Canada. Robertson was before &hellip; [read more]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@RoryClipsham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rory Clipsham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rory Clipsham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"headline\":\"Average Price of Housing Must Fall to Restore Affordability in Canada\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:11:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":697,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0672b9777e67473b9bd9247df49499c7\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Market Updates\",\"Real Estate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.roryc.ca\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/10\\\/average-price-of-housing-must-fall-to-restore-affordability-in-canada\\\/\",\"name\":\"Average Price of Housing Must Fall to Restore Affordability in Canada &#8226; 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