Average home price must fall in Canada to restore affordability, minister says

OTTAWA — Federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson says the average price of housing — not necessarily individual home values — must fall to restore affordability in Canada.

Robertson was before the House of Commons finance committee on Monday answering MPs’ questions about the Liberal government’s affordability legislation.

He acknowledged in his opening remarks that Canada faces a “housing crisis” but argued the federal Liberals are taking action to lower the cost of a home and boost the housing supply.

Conservative MP Aaron Gunn asked the minister if he still believes home prices don’t need to fall in Canada, citing comments Robertson made after he was sworn into cabinet in May.

Robertson focused on average home prices in his response.

“To be clear, we need to see average prices of housing for Canadians come down. We have to build a lot more non-market housing to bring down that average cost,” he said Monday.

When he was asked in May whether he felt home prices needed to come down, Robertson said “no.”

“I think that we need to deliver more supply, make sure the market is stable. It’s a huge part of our economy, but we need to be delivering more affordable housing,” he said at the time.

Housing affordability has been a central issue on Parliament Hill for years, thanks to a rapid rise in home prices over the past few decades that boxed many would-be buyers out of home ownership.

The non-profit Generation Squeeze, which advocates for generational fairness in government policy, said in a 2022 report that the average number of years Canadians needed to save up for a 20 per cent down payment on a typical home increased to 17 years in 2021, up from seven years in 2001.

The situation was even bleaker in the Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver, where the average homebuyer had to save for 27 years to put down a payment on a local home as of 2021.

Generation Squeeze found at the time that the average national home price would need to fall $341,000 — or full-time earnings would need to double — to allow the typical young person to afford a mortgage on a representative home.

Paul Kershaw, founder of Generation Squeeze, recently told The Canadian Press that the number of years needed to save for a down payment in 2024 stood closer to 13.7 on a national basis following a post-pandemic decline in average home prices across Canada.

Much of Robertson’s time before the committee Monday was spent defending the previous Liberal government’s housing record and his own tenure as mayor of Vancouver from 2008 to 2018, a period that saw substantial appreciation in local home values.

Robertson said his experience in Vancouver showed him the many challenges in how housing “works at the local level.” He said he understood how to work between municipal, provincial and federal housing authorities to get affordable homes built.

He also said home prices were already escalating, particularly on the West Coast, before either his election or the election of Justin Trudeau’s first Liberal government in 2015.

“Housing has become less affordable probably since the day I was born. By nature, it has increased over many decades,” he said.

Robertson said population growth is a factor in housing affordability but did not answer directly when asked whether he believes federal immigration policy in the past decade has make homes less affordable.

Robertson argued that the Liberal government’s Bill C-4 — the stated topic for his appearance at committee — would help Canadians break into the ownership market.

That legislation includes a proposal for first-time homebuyers to receive up to $50,000 in federal tax relief on a new home worth up to $1 million. The GST break diminishes for more expensive homes up to $1.5 million.

The Liberal government estimates the tax break would apply to nearly 47,000 new homes each year.

Robertson also said Ottawa’s new Build Canada Homes agency will help to restore affordability in the market in the years to come by building out the kind of non-market housing Canada has lacked in recent decades.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press