Toronto-area home building shifts into low gear as developers pause or cancel projects

Toronto-area homebuilders say a perfect storm of factors has more real estate developers pausing or cancelling new projects, even as the province touts new plans to achieve its ambitious goal of building 1.5 million new homes by 2031.

“If you’re a builder and you have a building permit, that doesn’t say you have to build,” said Richard Lyall, president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). “We have builders that have land, they could build, but they are not going to cut prices to hit their market. They can sit back on the land and wait until things settle down and become a little more predictable.”