Ottawa's housing starts surged 38% in 2025, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data, a headline number that sounds dramatic but, in context, represents progress rather than a solution to the city's structural housing shortage.
What Drove the Jump
The increase in Ottawa housing starts was driven largely by multi-unit residential construction: purpose-built rental buildings, mid-rise condominiums, and infill townhome projects concentrated along transit corridors and in established inner-city neighbourhoods.
Single-detached starts remained relatively subdued, constrained by land availability on the urban fringe and the economics of building at current lumber and labour costs.
Putting the Numbers in Context
A 38% increase is significant, but Ottawa is building from a relatively low base. During the 2021–2022 boom, housing starts lagged well behind population growth, a deficit that can't be made up in a single year of elevated construction.
CMHC's own estimates suggest that Ottawa needs to roughly double its annual housing construction output to meaningfully improve affordability over the next decade. Even with 2025's strong showing, the gap between housing need and housing supply remains wide.
Where the New Supply Is Landing
Much of the new supply is concentrated in areas already identified for intensification under Ottawa's Official Plan: Centretown, Hintonburg, Little Italy, Vanier, and along the LRT Stage 2 corridors in the east and west ends. Transit-oriented development near O-Train stations is producing a meaningful pipeline of mid-rise and high-rise residential projects.
The Affordability Gap
New housing starts help, but the units coming to market are often priced for the upper end of the market, luxury condos and purpose-built rentals at market rents that aren't affordable to lower-income households.
Addressing the full spectrum of Ottawa's housing need requires not just more supply, but the right mix of supply, including affordable and social housing that the private market alone won't deliver.
Source: CTV News Ottawa / CMHC housing starts data 2025
