Dave Waddell/The Windsor Star
While both Ontario and Canada recorded significant declines in new home starts in June, the Windsor area enjoyed a surge in new home construction, according to the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp.
“These numbers are shocking, I’m not going to lie,” Windsor Essex Home Builders’ Association president Brent Klundert told the Star.
The Windsor region had 58 new single-detached home starts last month and 305 multi-unit starts. On a percentage basis, home starts in the Windsor area were up 548 per cent overall in June.
Provincially, home starts in June were down 44 per cent in Ontario, while nationally, they were down 13 per cent.
“The residential side has been slow — these numbers show its trending up quite a bit,” said Klundert. He said 58 single detached homes in a month is not a huge monthly number compared to a few years ago.
But it’s a sign that things may be turning compared to the lack of activity dating back a year.
The burst of condo/apartment construction is less surprising as developers have been laying the groundwork for a pivot towards creating more affordable housing.
“We’re starting to see some of these projects trickling through now,” Klundert said.
“The market has been starving for something like this. Many of these projects have been in the works for some time.”
Klundert said the area’s strong population growth for over a year and the message the Bank of Canada’s slight interest rate cut sent in June are certainly factors in the more home starts.
“We haven’t had many starts since spring 2023, but people have continued to come,” Klundert said. “Eventually, you have to start creating places for people to live.
“Developers don’t have to wait for interest rates to bottom out. They just want to be certain of the direction before they pull the trigger on these projects.
“By the time they finish their project, they feel they can then finance them at reduced rates that make them financially viable again.”
Windsor Construction Association executive director Jim Lyons said between the Gordie Howe bridge, NextStar battery plant — both multibillion-dollar projects — and the improving home construction scene, his membership is keeping extremely busy.
“We’ve had a record year in man hours worked so far,” Lyons said. “We’re about double our typical volume. The bridge and battery plant have a lot do with that. They’re legacy projects.
“There are also new home starts projects that are just finishing or underway that we’ll see how those vacancies fill. There are lots of other projects in the works, but they won’t start until we know there’s more certainty on filling existing units.”
Lyons said with the battery plant on the cusp of significant direct hiring and the indirect hires that will result in the supply chain, Windsor’s moment is arriving. He noted he’ll be speaking at a conference of urban planners in the coming months where the Windsor area is one of the topics on the agenda.
“Developers are doing their homework,” Lyons said.
“Horizon Group from Toronto and most local developers sense there’s a market here. They’re taking the risk and building structures confident they’ll find the people to buy and rent them.”
Windsor and Amherstburg were the two municipalities that accounted for 278 of the 363 new local area home starts in June.
Amherstburg had 115 apartments and 10 single detached homes get underway while Windsor had 109 apartments, 10 semi-detached and 24 single detached homes commence. Lakeshore also saw 58 apartments and six single family homes get shovels into the ground.
Windsor, in particular, has been a strong performer this year in new home starts after a soft 2023. Through June 2024, the number of new starts in Windsor (693) has more than tripled compared to last year’s six-month total of 212.
“Amherstburg is a community that is benefiting from having the infrastructure in place for higher growth,” Klundert said. “Other communities are handcuffed.
“Tecumseh (which has had one new home start in 2024) is an area handcuffed by capacity constraints. I know they’re working hard on that and they’re very close to starting new developments there.”
The new home starts for the area’s other municipalities in June were Essex (11), Kingsville (11), LaSalle (eight), Leamington (one) and Tecumseh (none).