Housing affordability is a defining issue ahead of the October 26 municipal election across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and beyond.
In the latest episode of TRREB’s Ready to Real Estate podcast, Chief Information Officer Jason Mercer speaks with Jessica Smith Cross, editor-in-chief of The Trillium; Brian Crombie, host of The Brian Crombie Hour; and Stephen Adler, Senior Director, Public Affairs, at NATIONAL Public Relations.
The discussion moves beyond campaign promises to a practical question. Can municipalities create the conditions to build more homes while funding infrastructure, maintaining services and keeping communities liveable?
Municipal governments do not control every factor affecting affordability, but their decisions on zoning, taxes, fees, approvals and infrastructure can determine whether housing moves forward and what it ultimately costs. For voters, the test is whether candidates can turn broad commitments into clear, timely and predictable action.
TRREB’s Removing Roadblocks campaign also focuses 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.
Affordability and Confidence Are Closely Linked
Cross argues that affordability is the clearest ballot question, but it does not stand alone. Housing costs, property taxes, public safety and neighbourhood conditions combine to shape how residents judge whether life is improving.
“I think the first answer is affordability,” she says. “People are finding it hard to afford things. That includes housing.”
Crombie says the election is also a test of execution. Residents see costly housing alongside congestion, delayed infrastructure, rising taxes and pressure on basic services. In his view, voters are looking for evidence that municipal leaders can deliver.
“This election isn’t really about left versus right,” says Crombie. “It’s about promise versus performance.”
Move From Promises to Housing Delivery
Our podcast guests identify several focus areas that candidates should address, such as, zoning, development charges, approval timelines, parking requirements and infrastructure capacity. Together, these factors influence whether proposed housing advances, stalls or becomes too costly to build.
For Cross, the central obstacle is political consistency. Candidates may support more housing in principle, but the real test comes when a specific proposal faces local opposition.
“I’ve seen plenty of politicians at all levels who can talk very compellingly about the need to build more,” explains Cross. “And then at the same time say, ‘But not this one. Not in my ward, not in my backyard.’”
Crombie points to development charges and regulatory requirements as immediate pressure points. He argues that delayed construction today risks worsening affordability later by shrinking the future supply pipeline and driving skilled labour away from the sector.
“It takes longer to push the paper around city halls than it does to actually build something, which is absurd,” he says.
Make the Process Predictable
Adler says transparency is a priority for every candidate. Similar applications can face different timelines and requirements depending on where they are submitted. A clearer process with reviews completed concurrently rather than consecutively would give the public, lenders, developers and trades greater confidence.
“We need to streamline the process, make it more public,” adds Adler. “And when I say make it more public, I don’t just mean for the electorate; I mean for the bankers, the developers, the trades, et cetera.”
What Candidates Should Consider
Candidates should explain how they will reduce approval delays, review taxes and fees that add to the cost of new homes, align housing with transit and infrastructure, and support zoning that enables more housing options.
They should also show how they will build council support for difficult decisions, work with other levels of government and measure progress publicly. A plan matters, but so do the timetable, accountability and political will to deliver it.
Municipalities cannot solve affordability alone. However, the choices they make can either remove housing roadblocks or reinforce them. The upcoming election gives voters an opportunity to ask which candidates have a credible housing plan, the capacity to act and the ability to work with council and other levels of government.
For candidates, they should address the costs, delays and restrictions that hold back supply, and demonstrate how campaign commitments will turn in to new homes.
Listen to the full Ready to Real Estate episode for more analysis of the municipal races shaping housing and growth throughout the GTA and surrounding regions.