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BLOG / NEWS Updates
CREA: Momentum Continues as Canadian Home Sales Rise in October
The number of home sales recorded over Canadian MLS Systems edged up 0.9% on a month-over-month basis in October 2025, marking six monthly gains in the last seven months.
After a brief pause in September, home sales across Canada picked back up again in October, rejoining the trend in place since April, said Shaun Cathcart, CREAs Senior Economist. With interest rates now almost in stimulative territory, housing markets are expected to continue to become more active heading into 2026, although this is likely to be tempered by ongoing economic uncertainty.
October Highlights:
National home sales climbed 0.9% month-over-month.
Actual (not seasonally adjusted) monthly activity came in 4.3% below October 2024.
The number of newly listed properties declined 1.4% on a month-over-month basis.
The MLS Home Price Index (HPI) edged up 0.2% month-over-month but was down 3% on a year-over-year basis.
The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average sale price was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis.
New supply declined 1.4% month-over-month in October. Combined with an increase in sales activity, the sales-to-new listings ratio tightened to 52.2% compared to 51% recorded in September. The long-term average for the national sales-to-new listings ratio is 54.9%, with readings roughly between 45% and 65% generally consistent with balanced housing market conditions.
There were 189,000 properties listed for sale on all Canadian MLS Systems at the end of October 2025, up 7.2% from a year earlier but very close to the long-term average for that time of the year.
https://www.crea.ca/media-hub/news/canadian-home-sales-mark-four-year-high-for-the-month-of-september-2/
Is Canada’s housing policy working? Look at the outcomes for people, says new report from the National Housing Council
As the federal government launches a new drive to address Canadas housing crisis with Build Canada Homes, a new report released today by the National Housing Council (NHC) offers a comprehensive framework to assess the effectiveness of federal housing policy.
The report entitled Measuring What Matters: Proposing an Outcomes Framework for Federal Housing Policy, tackles a central question: how will Canadians know if housing policies are working?
Analysing the current health of Canadas housing system, the report finds that:
Affordability is declining: Home ownership is affordable in fewer than 20% of Canadian markets, and asking rents are unaffordable for most renters.
Housing transitions are stalling: Canadians face increasing barriers to moving through the housing system, from renting an apartment, to moving into ownership and from a first-owned home to a family-sized unit.
Equity gaps persist: Lower-income households, women, Indigenous people, racialized communities, and other equity-denied groups experience worse housing outcomes.
Supply challenges are growing: Rising costs of materials, land, labour, and municipal fees, along with approval delays and labour shortages, are driving a cost-of-delivery crisis.
Policy misalignment remains: Success is often measured by inputs and outputs - such as dollars spent and units built - rather than improvements in housing outcomes.
Grounded in the National Housing Strategy Act and the principles of the right to adequate housing, the report states that outcomes for people are what matter most when assessing if housing policies are working.
https://nhc-cnl.ca/news/post/is-canada-s-housing-policy-working-look-at-the-outcomes-for-people-says-new-report-from-the-national-housing-council-
CMHC: Unlocking housing supply: Why scale really matters
Canada can look to international examples where consolidating and scaling the housing system have helped sustain housing supply and affordability.
According to a 2016 McKinsey report, the construction industry remains one of the least digitized sectors. Out of 22 industries reviewed, construction ranked second to last just ahead ofhunting and agriculture. Nearly a decade later, little progress has been made in how we build homes.
Canadas housing sector feels stuck in an everlasting hunting-gathering era, resisting modernization. A large part of the solution to digitize our housing industry lies in scaling up to generate sufficient financial, human and technological resources to innovate.
Canada can learn from the Netherlands, which has achieved scale in the housing sector, including with not-for-profit affordable housing providers.
In 2024, Canada had 40,349 businesses that employed workers in the residential construction industry. Of these, only 6 businesses had more than 500 employees. The majority (69.5%) were micro businesses with just 1 to 4 employees.
The same trend applies to the real estate lease management industry. While specific data for residential leasing is not available through the Canadian Industry Statistics, broader data for the real estate leasing and management sector tell a clear story: Of the 30,099 businesses that employ workers, 81.4% had less than 5 employees. By comparison, 59.2% of businesses across the entire economy fall into the micro-business category.
https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/observer/2025/unlocking-housing-supply-why-scale-really-matters
