2025 Ontario Budget

The 2025 Ontario Budget was released recently. Here is a summary of initiatives that impact real estate in Ontario:

• An additional $400 million has been invested in the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program (MHIP) and the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund (HEWSF), building on nearly $2 billion previously committed. This funding supports essential water, wastewater, and road infrastructure needed to unlock over 750,000 new homes.
• $50 million over five years to expand modular housing construction in Ontario. This will improve affordability, speed up development timelines, and grow domestic capacity.
• A new lending stream under Infrastructure Ontario will offer up to $1 billion in low-interest loans to help municipalities fund the construction, expansion, and rehabilitation of housing-enabling water infrastructure.
• Municipalities will be granted new powers to reduce property taxes on affordable rental housing by up to 35 per cent, beginning in 2026.
• Municipalities that achieve at least 80 per cent of their assigned housing targets under the Building Faster Fund will continue to benefit from performance-based funding. Over $280 million has already been distributed.

Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Highlights:

• A transformative $975 million tri-government investment in Toronto’s waterfront will support the creation of over 14,000 new homes, including affordable rental units, and unlock $13.2 billion in economic activity.
• Expansion of GO Transit service across the GGH, including additional infrastructure at Union Station and higher-frequency service on key lines.

The Federal budget has been delayed until the Fall so we will need to wait to see what initiatives are being launched by Mark Carney’s Liberal government. In particular, we are interested in seeing what measures are being put in place to support Canada’s real estate market that will encourage buyer confidence, affordability, and investment.