Brantford and Brant County Falling Drastically Behind in New Construction

According to one of the latest reports, housing in Brantford and Brant Count are going to have to pick up the pace as over 13,300 new homes are going to be needed in this region in the next ten years.

Over the last 10 years we’ve added about 5000 homes, (low 230 in 2016, high 1020 in 2021) and only in the last 5 years has Brantford hit an average of 627 homes per year.

The province as a whole is already behind the 8-ball by a whopping 500,000 homes, needing over one million homes (including houses, apartments and condos) in that same time span of ten years.

With bigger cities in the GTA already falling behind at a faster pace, Brantford and Brant County will be left to pick up the slack. This could mean a continuing pace of price increases for new builds, and newer homes which then trickles down to the rest of the resale inventory.

It can take ten years by the time developers acquire the land, get all the necessary permits, zoning updates, material sourcing, and infrastructure approvals to finally build the homes. Municipal and provincial governments will need to step up and put policies in place to help speed this process along, otherwise we are going to be lapped by the fast paced demand that continues to grow.

On top of all that, there is a serious shortage of skilled trade workers as retirements keep coming with less and less younger workers coming on to replace them.

With more and more buyers looking towards the Greater Toronto Area for housing, and a resale inventory that is still well below what is considered a “balanced” market, we are no where close to satisfying the demand that will continue to grow over the next decade.