Apartment construction continues to fuel the London area’s building trend. New statistics from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) show the region is bucking a national downward trend when it comes to housing starts. In August, there were 213 new home starts in the London Census Metro Area, which includes parts of Middlesex and St. Thomas-Elgin. Year to date new home starts reached 2,862, exceeding the region’s January to August ten year benchmark of 2,133. “You’ve had a very strong year. You’re well above what we typically build in London,” said Anthony Passarelli, CMHC Lead Economist (Southern Ontario). “It’s heavily skewed toward the rental sector, particularly, there’s rental apartments that has really dominated construction activity. Not so much in that townhome, single-detached segment of the market yet. But it’s still been a very strong year,” he said. The city of London, itself, recorded 2,490 new home starts from January to August- well above its ten year benchmark of 1,589 home starts for that period. London Home Builders Association CEO Jared Zaifman says homebuyers continue to take advantage of this year’s HST cut on new homes, but we won’t necessarily see shovels in the ground right away. “Because of the HST rebate, enhanced rebate, so that’s very positive to see. But at the same time, there’s been a lot of deals signed for new purchases, but a lot of those won’t get constructed until Spring, 2027,” Zaifman said. Currently, London has 1,899 permit-approved housing units awaiting construction. Passarelli says given that large number, near term housing starts are expected to remain strong, with continued activity in apartment construction. “There’s still a fair amount of permitted rental apartments that are probably going to break ground soon. So that trend will continue going forward in the short term,” he said.
