The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says across Canada, housing starts were up 5.6 per cent last year, marking the fifth-highest annual total on record.
The corporation says ground broke on 259,028 homes in 2025, compared to 2024 when construction started on 245,367. The increases were driven by a second consecutive year of record rental housing starts, which made up half of all construction.
Actual housing starts climbed 25 per cent year-over-year in cities where the population is at least 10,000, with 20,716 units in December, compared to 16,531 a year earlier.
Windsor bucked the national trend with a drop in housing starts of 41 per cent for all of 2025. Ground broke on 331 single-detached homes and 931 multi-unit projects. In 2024, construction started on 486 single-detached homes and 1,671 multi-unit buildings.
Home starts in Ontario last year totalled 9,942 single-detached homes, compared to 10,067, a drop of four per cent. On apartment buildings and other multi-unit projects, construction was up 12 per cent compared to 2024.
