In the City of Toronto, developers broke ground on 156 condominium units in the first half of 2026, according to CMHC's new Fall 2026 Housing Supply Report.
The decade average is roughly 7,000 units a year.
Nationally, the report puts Canada's annual housing shortfall at 187,000 to 238,000 homes over the next decade — the gap between current construction pace and the 417,000 to 469,000 homes CMHC says are needed each year to restore 2019-level affordability by 2036.
That national gap is close to unchanged from CMHC's 2025 estimate. Underneath it, the picture shifted by region: the gap narrowed in Toronto and Calgary, held steady in Vancouver, and widened in Ottawa and Montréal.
Purpose-built rental apartments, meanwhile, now account for two-thirds of all apartment starts in Canada's key markets, per the report.
Toronto
CMHC says Toronto needs to increase its current pace of housing starts by at least 50% over the next decade — between 21,000 and 26,000 additional homes a year — to return to 2019-level affordability.
Population-adjusted housing starts in the first half of 2026 were the lowest since 1996, excluding last year. The backlog of permitted units waiting to break ground has fallen 50% from its 2023 peak. Condo project launches have largely stalled, and ground-oriented freehold starts are at record lows after more than two decades of decline.
Rental apartment starts rose 82% in the first half of 2026 compared to 2025, outpacing condo starts (those aforementioned 156) for the first time since 1994.
Vancouver
Vancouver's supply gap has held steady so far in 2026. Softer resale prices and stronger-than-expected construction narrowed it; higher anticipated population growth and a slower projected pace of housing starts pushed the other way.
Rental apartments have made up about 60% of Vancouver's housing starts in 2026, up from less than 20% a decade ago, and rental starts rose 36% compared to 2025.
Condo apartment starts fell a further 40% in the first half of the year — the weakest first half for condo construction since 2011 — with unsold inventory building in Surrey, the City of Vancouver, and Burnaby in particular.
CMHC puts Vancouver's current pace of starts 5,000 to 7,000 units short of what's needed to restore pre-pandemic affordability by 2036.
