With Ontario’s municipal election on Monday, October 26, voters across the GTA and Simcoe are hearing increasingly detailed debates about housing affordability, property taxes, infrastructure, development charges, and how communities should accommodate growth.
For REALTORS® and their clients, the next generation of mayors and councillors will directly influence where municipalities build homes, how quickly they approve them, how much the homes cost, and whether supporting infrastructure keeps pace with growth.
That is why TRREB’s Removing Roadblocks campaign has focused on practical municipal reforms that can help get more homes built, including expanding housing choice, reducing unnecessary costs and delays, improving approval certainty, and ensuring infrastructure is planned alongside new housing.
As the campaign enters its final weeks, here are some of the housing and affordability issues emerging across the region.
Toronto: Affordability, Taxes and Housing Delivery
In Toronto, affordability and the cost of municipal government have become prominent campaign issues. The mayoral debates held so far have included competing approaches to property taxes, municipal spending and service delivery, alongside questions about housing, transit, congestion, and public safety.
Housing costs moved even more squarely into the campaign when mayoral candidate Brad Bradford proposed eliminating Toronto’s Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT) on the first $1.1 million of a home purchase. Under the proposal, buyers purchasing a principal residence for $1.1 million or less would pay no municipal land transfer tax, and the campaign estimates that eligible buyers could save up to $18,000. The proposal would apply to both first-time and existing homebuyers, while excluding investors and commercial purchasers.
TRREB welcomed the proposal, calling MLTT relief a “significant step forward for homebuyers in Toronto.” TRREB has long advocated for reducing the tax and modernizing the City’s first-time homebuyer rebate, arguing that the MLTT creates a significant upfront barrier to homeownership and affects mobility within the housing market. The commitment also aligns directly with TRREB’s Removing Roadblocks municipal election priorities, which call for Toronto to reduce its existing MLTT and other municipalities to reject the introduction of similar taxes.
Read TRREB’s statement on the proposed MLTT relief
Mississauga and Brampton: Paying for Growth
In Peel Region, municipal candidates and voters are focusing more on the relationship between housing growth, infrastructure, and municipal costs.
In Mississauga, candidates are debating economic growth, infrastructure, and municipal finances. Critical issues include the pace and shape of the intensification, downtown growth, housing affordability, transit integration, tax and service levels, and public confidence in City Hall. Candidates will be tested on whether they support more townhomes, multiplexes and other missing-middle options, keep development charges transparent and competitive, and fast-track approvals.
In Brampton, an important housing issue is the future of development charge relief and how the municipality can fund infrastructure required for rapid growth without unnecessarily increasing the cost of new housing.
TRREB has urged GTA and Simcoe County municipalities and regions to take advantage of the Canada–Ontario Development Charges Reduction Program, which aims to reduce upfront housing costs while supporting housing-enabling infrastructure.
York Region: Infrastructure Must Keep Pace
Across York Region, the housing discussion increasingly centres on what happens after municipalities approve new housing: providing water and wastewater capacity, expanding transit, accommodating density, setting development charges, and coordinating infrastructure with growth.
Vaughan has already provided a prominent example of municipal action on housing costs through significant development charge reductions. TRREB has pointed to the approach as an example of how reducing upfront costs can support housing construction while governments continue investing in the infrastructure required for growth.
Richmond Hill residents are concerned about infrastructure investments and how the city will continue to manage growth alongside commercial developments. Traffic bottlenecks, affordability challenges, and rising taxes continue to challenge the city.
One of the key election issues in Markham is how best to manage growth within the city. Traffic congestion and the development of efficient transit infrastructure, along with preserving Markham’s environmental features and managing its greenspace, remain top-of-mind priorities for the City’s residents.
Durham Region: Turning Growth into Housing Supply
Housing growth is also an important election issue across Durham.
In Oshawa, the open mayoral contest is putting downtown revitalization, development charge incentives, and transit-oriented development in the spotlight. This includes how approved development can translate into additional rental and ownership housing.
In Pickering, growth in Seaton and northeast Pickering highlights another challenge: ensuring that jobs, transit, schools, and municipal services accompany new homes to create complete communities.
Halton Region: Housing Choice Meets Infrastructure
In Oakville, candidates and voters in the election are asking how the municipality can add housing, including missing-middle and transit-supportive development, while maintaining public confidence in infrastructure and local services.
In Milton, the new Official Plan focuses attention on water and wastewater capacity, transit, schools, development charges, and predictable approvals for new communities.
Barrie: Managing Growth and Its Costs
Barrie continues to face many of the same pressures confronting municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe: accommodating population growth while ensuring infrastructure and services keep pace.
Growth management, local services and development charges are prominent issues. The newly drawn Ward 4 is a race to watch, as local discussions focus on traffic and road safety, responsible growth, development, affordability, homelessness, and municipal services.
Advance Voting Begins
For TRREB Members, the weeks ahead are an opportunity to learn where local candidates stand on the decisions that directly affect housing supply and affordability.
Several GTA municipalities have begun advance voting. Check your local municipality’s website for exact dates and complete details. Election Day across Ontario is Monday, October 26.
Learn more about TRREB’s Remove Housing Roadblocks campaign priorities.