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Rome wasn’t built in a day. A skyscraper in Toronto isn’t built in a day, either …or even a year.
Indeed, to build a skyscraper in Ontario is a years-long process just to get the approvals from City planners. First is the rezoning application (if applicable), then the site plan ppproval, and then the numerous building permits.
The City of Toronto calls this process the “development pipeline,” having published a report in February of last year to analyze it. The City concluded that there were more than 717,000 dwelling units and 14.5 million m² (151 million ft²) of gross floor area proposed between the years 2017 and 2021. This includes renovations to detached and semi-detached homes to include basement suites, garden suites, laneway suites, conversions, and so on. Many of these proposed units have already been approved and completed.
UrbanToronto does not track minor variances to detached and semi-detached dwellings, but we do track virtually everything else. Here is our breakdown of the number of units proposed and awaiting approval not just in Toronto proper, but across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Looking at only pre-construction projects (disregarding their approval status), we find that there are more than 1.2 million units waiting to be built. Some of these units are approved, some are recent submissions, and some are even re-submissions for previously approved projects—often asking for more density, height, and units.
Breaking down the units by municipality, the top 9 cities with the most units in pre-construction include Toronto, Hamilton, Markham, Mississauga, Vaughan, Kitchener, Brampton, Oakville, and Caledon.
We can also look at units currently approved but still in pre-construction. This may be for a variety of reasons, including developers exploring whether to change their proposal somehow (usually to add more units), or market timing, or looking for another developer to flip the already rezoned site to, or a host of other reasons. There are more than 210,000 such units across the GTHA.
While looking at the municipal breakdown, we see a different top 9 for approved-but-still-pre-construction units: Toronto, Richmond Hill, Cambridge, Kitchener, Pickering, Brampton, Barrie, Mississauga, and Hamilton.
As all three levels of government have been pushing for faster approvals, we expect to see even more projects approved next year. In a future article we will look at units under construction.
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UrbanToronto has a research service, UrbanToronto Pro, that provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Toronto Area—from proposal through to completion. We also offer Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
