Housing builds jump in Sask., but more needed

For the first three months of the year, Saskatchewan saw a 96.5 per cent increase in housing starts in urban centres, the highest increase among the provinces, but numbers will need to go even higher to keep up with the province’s growth.

According to numbers from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the country’s housing policy agency, in the first three months of the year, there were 1,295 total housing starts in centres with 10,000 or more people – it was at 659 for the same period the year before.

Housing starts are when construction work has begun on the building. In the country as a whole, housing starts were down, year over year.

Read More:

• Sask. government, Ottawa, finalize 10-year housing infrastructure deal
• Sask. town sees flurry of construction with $30K housing cheque program
• Regina home buyers frustrated with lack of inventory: Real estate agent

According to the CMHC’s seasonally adjusted annual rates, if the province built like it did in March for the whole year, there would be 7,897 housing starts for the year.

While Chris Guérette, CEO of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA), is happy to see construction numbers trending higher, neither of those numbers are high enough.

She said, according to the most recent analysis the SRA did two years ago, the province would need to spit out 10,000 to 15,000 units a year to be in a comfortable place.

“We’ve done that before in Saskatchewan during times that were more described as booming here, so we know we can do it,” said Guérette.

Saskatchewan’s population has grown quickly over the last several years, gaining 81,483 people since the beginning of 2020 to reach 1,250,909 in the first quarter of 2025.

The provincial government introduced a growth plan in 2019, wanting to pump the population up to 1.4 million people by 2030. In an update last year, the government said it was on track to meet that target.

More people need more houses

Guérette said the CMHC came out with numbers last year, showing the province would need around 100,000 new housing units by 2030 to keep up with the population growth in that plan.

At its peak, Guérette said there were between 12,000 and 15,000 permits being issued in 2007 and 2008. She said in those years, the province couldn’t get housing built fast enough.

“We know that we can get into that area, those are the kind of numbers we want to see in Saskatchewan again,” she explained.

Chris Guérette, Saskatchewan Realtors Association CEO (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

Guérette said the current statistics for Saskatchewan are starting to look like they did in those boom years as well – it was intense in the market and people were having a difficult time buying homes because the competition was so acute.

“We see it in front of us right now, we are going to have a very intense spring and summer,” said Guérette.

She said tariff worries don’t seem to be touching Saskatchewan’s market.

Housing starts are new homes, and Guérette said new homes are increasingly more expensive than the current stock. New builds will typically be a bit more, according to Guérette, but she said the price for new is increasing too quickly.

“The gap between the new homes and the current housing stock right now is maybe a little bit too much,” she explained.

There are new policies in place to try to steer people toward new builds. Guérette pointed to the federal policy last year allowing people to take out a 30-year mortgage on new builds only.

“We can build the houses, but if not enough people are buying new houses, then we’re not spitting out enough for the whole continuum to have the right impact that we want,” she said.

She said if people don’t buy new houses, then developers won’t have an incentive to keep building them.

How to build more

To get to that 2007, 2008 peak of building, Guérette said red tape, fees and taxation need to be removed from building.

“Just get out of the way and let them build, and do that as fast as we can,” said Guérette.

She said things to watch for include whether municipalities are providing permits quickly enough and whether they’re adding additional levies to the home-building process.

When new homes are built, the hope is that in at least some cases, people will upgrade, opening up more space in the more affordable market and rental market.

Affordable housing

There is a need in the province for affordable housing, according to Robert Byers, CEO of Namerind Housing. His company is an affordable housing provider in Regina and he said its waiting list is over 250 families.

“I would say that that list is similar to other housing providers,” he said.

Byers said there’s also a need for social and subsidized housing, and supportive housing as well.

Namerind released a homelessness survey recently that showed the counted homeless population in Regina doubled in three years, and it recently put out a five-year plan to end homelessness.

While addictions and mental health are factors in the homelessness problem, Byers said the affordability of housing is as well.

Namerind is working on building a complex in Regina, but Byers only knew of one other affordable housing project that had opened in the city in the past few years. The CMHC numbers for housing starts broke them down by single-detached dwellings and all others, but not by whether they would be considered affordable housing.

Byers is hopeful this is a problem that can be fixed. He said it will take money and a willingness for all parties to come into the fold and work on it together.