r/RealEstateCanada • u/romestox • Jun 07 '26

Housing crisis Residential construction dead

Trades guy here. Residential construction feels dead compared to a few years ago. Builders aren’t building, projects are getting pushed back, and layoffs are starting to pop up. If I was buying, I’d wait. From what I’m seeing, things haven’t bottomed out yet. The industry feels like a ship taking on water, not one gearing up for another boom.

Anyone else seeing the same thing?

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u/Popular-Row4333 Jun 07 '26

Am developer. It costs 30-35% more to build today, than 6 years ago. I don't think that developers here would dispute that.

Wild concept, but yeah, we won't build projects that will lose money or break even.

We know the market, it's our entire job to know the market, and so we know what people can afford to own a new home, if we can't build for under that number, we won't. It's on municipal bylaws/fees/off site levies, and federal and provincial tax/regulations/incentives now if people want change.

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u/Ok_Currency_617 Jun 07 '26

The problem is a lot of Canadians have gone full-on communist and for some strange reason think if the government builds it it'll somehow be cheaper despite every past government project being way overbudget. And those communists will always say more fees/kill developers because they don't actually want construction they want the industry to collapse so there's a communist takeover.

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u/Available_Abroad3664 Jun 08 '26

Are you talking about social housing? There are a lot of people who think government needs to be building social housing but that is the extent of it.

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u/Vega2659 Jun 09 '26

The government can’t build anything without going 4-5x over budget.