Housing and Federal Election 2025
Following a whirlwind five-week federal election campaign, Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada have been elected to form government.
The ballot question during this election coalesced around two competing narratives: who was best to deal with US President Donald Trump vs who was best to tackle Canada’s cost of living and affordability crisis. CREA’s advocacy successfully highlighted that the housing crisis was central to both, ensuring housing policy stayed as a top concern throughout the entire election.
The Housing Canada Coalition, of which the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is a part of, drafted a 10-point policy blueprint aimed at ending the housing game by building a housing safety net and fixing the housing crisis.
During the election, CREA helped amplify the Housing Canada Coalition advocacy campaign, which encouraged all parties to take urgent action. Between the Housing Canada Coalition recommendations and other REALTOR® recommendations we’ve been advocating for over the past several years, we’re encouraged by the number of policy commitments that have been reflected by the major political parties.
The list below highlights commitments that align with our recommendations. A full overview of all the party housing commitments is available on the REALTOR® Action Network.
Jump Ahead
Liberal Party of Canada
- Reintroduce a tax incentive for home builders known as the Multi-Unit Rental Building (MURB) which, in the 1970s, spurred tens of thousands of rental housing units across the country.
- Cut municipal development charges in half for multi-unit residential housing for a period of five years to lower the cost of homebuilding and make housing more affordable.
- Eliminate the GST for first-time home buyers on homes under $1 million.
- Catalyzing the housing industry by providing more than $25 billion in financing to innovative prefabricated home builders in Canada, including those using Canadian technologies and resources like mass timber and softwood lumber, to build faster, smarter, more affordably, and more sustainably.
- Create Build Canada Homes (BCH) to get the federal government back into the business of home building, by: acting as a developer to build affordable housing at scale, including on public lands; and, providing $10 billion in low-cost financing and capital to affordable home builders.
- Invest $1 billion to power more homes with efficient and affordable electric heating and cooling and make homes more resilient to extreme weather.
- Increase access to union-led training initiatives by doubling the funding of the Union Training and Innovation Program from $25 million to $50 million annually.
- Establish a new $20 million capital funding stream for colleges to support new training spaces for apprenticeships.
- Uphold the Apprenticeship Service Program to support employers in hiring new apprentices in Red Seal trades, with up to $10,000 for eligible employers for each new apprentice hired.
- Increase labour mobility for skilled trades people between provinces and territories through the vital work of breaking down internal trade barriers.
- Incentivize companies to hire apprentices and recent graduates by establishing new requirements on federal contribution agreements to major projects that commit industry partners to include significant opportunities for young Canadians.
- Facilitate the conversion of existing structures into affordable housing units.
- Build on the success of the Housing Accelerator Fund, further reducing housing bureaucracy, zoning restrictions, and other red tape so that builders only need to navigate one housing market, instead of 13.
- Speed up approvals by reforming and simplifying national building codes; eliminating duplicative inspections and streamlining regulations for prefabricated and modular housing; leveraging pre-approved, standardized housing designs across all public lands and encouraging the adoption of the designs as-of-right across the country; allowing builders and other orders of government to apply for multiple projects at once; and fast-tracking builders who have a proven record with government.
- Invest in northern infrastructure, including a new hydroelectricity project and other energy projects, so that people have access to safe, reliable energy; improve housing stock, accelerate housing development, and meet growing housing demand. This includes investment in new port projects, railways, airstrips, and highways, all with dual-use capabilities. This work will be undertaken with Arctic and Northern Indigenous partners.
- Invest in deeply affordable housing, supportive housing, and shelters in recognition of the link between housing and mental health outcomes.
- Work in partnership with Indigenous communities and Indigenous housing providers.
Conservative Party of Canada
- Eliminate GST on new homes under $1.3 million.
- Sell off 6,000 federal buildings, thousands of acres of federal land to build new homes; Conservatives will provide even more land to build on by selling 15% of the federal government’s 37,000 buildings, and require these buildings be turned into affordable housing.
- Incentivize municipalities to speed up permits, free up land, and cut housing taxes so homes can be built faster.
- Bring more Boots, not Suits, backing 350,000 positions for trade schools and union halls to train Red Seal apprentices to build homes, and bring back the $4,000 apprenticeship grant.
- Unlock billions of dollars in the private sector by allowing anyone who reinvests in Canada to defer tax on capital gains to invest more in home building.
- Require cities to free up land, speed up permits and cut development charges to build 15% more homes each year. If they miss their target, their federal funding will be withheld, equal to how much they miss their target by.
- Eliminate GST on new rental housing construction to build thousands of affordable rental units.
- Simplify and harmonize the National Building Code.
- Return to a "housing first" approach to eliminating homelessness so that individuals experiencing homelessness can have a stable place to live.
- Establish a permanent stream of infrastructure funding to First Nations under the First Nations Fiscal Management Act. Provide Indigenous-led housing solutions with direct access to funds.
- Simplify and unlock federal funding programs for Indigenous housing and community development.
- Support Indigenous-designed housing programs that meet local needs and respect traditional cultural materials and design.
- Include Indigenous communities in national housing targets and infrastructure planning.
New Democratic Party
- Redesign and double the Public Land Acquisition Fund, investing $1 billion over five years into acquiring more public land to build more rent-controlled homes on.
- Train 100,000 more people including newcomers, and people displaced by U.S President Donald Trump’s trade war in skilled trades and improve working conditions.
- Establish the Communities First Fund to support provinces in building the infrastructure needed for growth—like water, transit, and public services—while requiring rent control, inclusive zoning, and homelessness strategies. To incentivize provinces to build homes faster, an additional $8 billion will be invested over four years through the new Communities First Fund. This fund will help expand the water, sewage, and infrastructure foundations needed to support new housing.
- Replace the expiring Housing Accelerator Fund with a permanent $16 billion national housing strategy made up of the new Canadian Homes Transfer and the Communities First Fund. The Canadian Homes Transfer will reward cities that build quickly, allow more townhomes and apartments, and prioritize homes near transit. This will help reach a target of 20% non-market housing in every neighbourhood. The Communities First Fund will support provinces in building the infrastructure needed for growth – like water, transit, and public services.
- Introduce measures including rent control, as well as prohibitions on practices such as renovictions, demovictions and other predatory landlord practices aimed at pushing people out of their homes and driving up rents.
- Set aside 100% of suitable federal crown land to build more than 100,000 rent-controlled homes by 2035, as well redesigning and expanding the Public Land Acquisition Fund to acquire even more public land to build on.
- Boost the Rental Protection Fund by providing an additional $2 billion to help non-profits such as tenant associations and housing co-ops purchase thousands of affordable apartments, to keep them affordable when they come onto the market.
- Establish a Housing Insecurity Prevention Benefit to help 50,000 people in critical need find homes.
Bloc Québécois
- Proposer que les investissements fédéraux en logement soient automatiquement accompagnés de hausses de financement pour les infrastructures municipales requises, par exemple le traitement des eaux usées, l’électricité, etc.
- Proposer des investissements en logement résilient dans les communautés nordiques, en plus de soutenir ces communautés face au dégel du pergélisol, qui aggrave les besoins en matière de rénovation.
- Augmenter substantiellement, grâce aux transferts fédéraux sans condition, la proportion de logements hors marché à 20 %.
Green Party of Canada
- Triple the amount of social housing in Canada by building 1.2 million permanently affordable homes (non-market rental or cooperative) over seven years.
- Mandate CMHC to establish five regional prefab/modular housing plants to mass-produce affordable housing, cutting construction costs and delays while creating thousands of skilled jobs in manufacturing and construction.
- Extend the existing GST removal for developers of for-profit rental housing to include all homes built for affordable homeownership through organizations like Habitat for Humanity.
- Ensure CMHC’s modular housing plants prioritize energy-efficient, sustainable construction, integrating low-carbon materials into Canada’s public housing expansion.
- Transfer federal land to Indigenous-led housing organizations to support community-driven housing solutions, in alignment with self-determination principles under UNDRIP.
- Expand federal funding for youth shelters and transitional housing, ensuring dedicated housing supports for young people at risk of homelessness.
It is expected Prime Minister Carney will open the new Parliament in mid-May, and possibly table a budget before the summer. Importantly, Canada is hosting the 2025 G7 Leaders' Summit in June which will factor into timing.
We’re now switching gears from election mode to strategic engagement mode. We will be analyzing the results, finding points of alignment in the platform commitments, and finalizing our lobbying strategy.
Building on the momentum of the Housing Canada Coalition advocacy campaign and the ongoing importance of housing to Canada’s economic outlook, our strategic engagement in the coming weeks and months is critical. We will be establishing new relationships, cementing old ones, and leveraging the power of our grassroots PAC network accordingly.
CREA’s 40th annual PAC Days will take place this fall from October 26–28, 2025.
