City trumpets 12 per cent increase in housing starts

The City of Winnipeg is reporting a big increase in housing starts in 2025 but some argue the construction isn’t the right type to address a severe shortage.

In a rare Sunday news release from the mayor’s office, the city said it saw 4,993 new housing units begin construction, a 12.3 per cent increase from 2024, according to newly released data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The figures represent the second-highest annual total in the city’s history, the release said, noting the 12.3 increase more than doubled the Canadian average of 5.6 per cent.

Coun. Evan Duncan, the city’s chair of the property and development committee, called the figures welcome news.

“It sends a clear signal to investors and developers and Winnipeggers that we’re not sitting on our hands doing nothing at council,” Duncan said Sunday.

The mayor’s office credited the data to several policy changes and initiatives, including leveraging federal funding, zoning and infill changes, permit processing improvements, incentives for redevelopment projects and a focus on purpose-built rental housing.

The changes have signalled to developers that Winnipeg is willing to work with them to get housing built, which will help to improve the city’s economy in the long run, Duncan said.

“We’re going to continue to do what we have to do to make sure that we’re not hearing these stories about ‘I’m leaving Winnipeg because there’s no opportunity.’ We’re going to create opportunity,” he said.

Nationally, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data show housing starts in centres of 10,000 or more people were up 5.6 per cent, with 241,171 units recorded, compared to 227,697 in 2024.

The figures show 3,689 housing units were completed in Winnipeg, down from 5,738 units in 2024.

Kate Kehler, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, said housing is progressing in the right direction but she remained wary of the figures as they relate to different needs for residents.

She said she hopes the city makes good on its commitment in the release to keep housing a “top priority” in 2026, with a focus on affordable and rent-geared-to-income units.

“If the majority of the rent-geared-to-income is coming solely out of not-for-profit proponents, then that’s also a concern, because the not-for-profit folks have other funding concerns, and then it becomes difficult and unstable,” she said.

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Kehler referenced recent social housing developments on Sherburn Street and near the Pan Am Clinic that were reversed and put on hold by council, owing to community pushback. She said those developments are necessary to address the city’s need for deeply affordable housing.

Housing stock numbers for Winnipeg in 2025 weren’t available in the CMHC’s data. Last June, CMHC released new projections which said up to 4.8 million new homes would need to be built in Canada over the next decade to restore affordability levels last seen in 2019, based on projected demand.

That would mean between 430,000 and 480,000 new housing units are needed per year across ownership and rental markets by 2035.

— with files from The Canadian Press

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.