Creating jobs as well as communities

The home building, land development and professional renovation industry is in the business of building cities and creating jobs.

We are the industry that designs, develops, constructs and renovates the buildings and communities where people live, work, play and shop, and are one of the largest employers in the region, providing jobs for thousands of GTA residents every year.

In 2016, our industry was responsible for 173,719 on-site and off-site jobs in new home construction, renovation and repair, according to estimates prepared for the Canadian Home Builders’ Association based on Statistics Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data.

Reno vs New Construction

While last year’s job numbers were down almost 23,000 from 2015, they were well above the 155,300 on-site and off-site jobs of 2014.

In 2016, the renovation and repair side of the industry accounted for nearly as many jobs as the new home construction component. About 85,876 people in the GTA worked in jobs in residential renovation and repair, while 87,843 were in on-site and off-site jobs in new home building.

The number of jobs in the new home construction area of the industry is directly influenced by new housing starts. In 2016, there were 40,277 new housing starts in the GTA, compared with 44,092 in 2015. Given our housing supply woes in this region and the challenges the industry faces bringing product to market, it is not surprising that starts were down last year.

Nearly half – 19,617 – of last year’s new-home starts were in the city of Toronto, and Toronto was one of the few areas of the GTA, where starts were up from 2015. In York Region, there were 8,926 starts last year, down from 9,775 in 2015. Meanwhile, in Peel Region, construction began on 5,362 new housing units last year, significantly fewer than the 8,100 in 2015.

None of this is surprising, given that the industry is building to the province’s intensification policies and we are selling and building significantly fewer lowrise homes and far more midrise and highrise homes than we did a decade ago.

The building of new homes and communities is a multi-faceted process involving the hard work of hundreds of industry professionals. Every construction crane represents up to 500 jobs.

The process of developing homes and communities begins long before the shovels reach the ground and requires the expertise of a wide range of professionals. Urban planners, architects, engineers, financiers and lawyers are just some of the many experts needed to bring development projects to life. Designers, marketers, brokers and salespeople are a few of those needed to bring new homes to the market. Then there are the numerous skilled tradespeople such as carpenters, masons, drywallers and electricians who construct new homes.

Economic Driver

Our industry is a major employer and key driver of our economy. Last year in the GTA, the many professionals involved in new home construction earned about $5.2 billion in paid wages, while the numerous professionals working in residential renovation and repair earned $5 billion in wages. In total, the industry paid $10.2 billion in wages, and those wages were used to purchase consumables such as groceries, clothes and cars, and thereby support growth in other industries and contribute to the economic prosperity of our region.