Report

Federal Spending on Housing Affordability in 2024

Dec 12, 2024

This report provides an overview of federal spending and progress towards meeting the overall target of Canada’s National Housing Strategy. This report was written in response to interest from Parliamentarians and the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Highlights

Spending on programs to address housing affordability averages $6.1 billion annually over the term of Canada’s 10-year National Housing Strategy (NHS). This represents a 50% increase in the purchasing power of federal spending compared with the prior 10 years.
Additional program spending has been primarily allocated to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporations’ Financing for Housing programs, which received a $1.3 billion per annum increase in funding.
Total spending on housing affordability is estimated to be $17.5 billion annually, with 65% attributable to tax expenditures.
After accounting for the impact of all relevant federal policies, we project that 2.6 million households will be in housing need by 2027. This represents an increase of about 926,000 households in core housing need compared to the start of Canada’s NHS in 2017.
Increasing core housing need is being driven by higher interest rates and the slow adjustment of the housing stock to higher immigration.
Without the renewed federal spending to address housing affordability under Canada’s NHS, there would be about 78,000 more households in core housing need by 2027.