New developments get strong helping hand from Mississauga, study shows

A new study that shows Greater Toronto Area municipalities aren’t building enough homes to keep up with population growth also notes that Mississauga is among the top cities when it comes to providing incentives to get shovels in the ground.

Mississauga ranks third among 16 municipalities when it comes to overall planning processes, approval timelines and municipal fees — all factors that determine how quickly new homes get built.

Barrie earned top spot while Oakville placed second in the Building Industry and Land Development Association’s Greater Toronto Area Municipal Benchmarking Study (see results below).

In addition to finding that the number of new homes built in the GTA “is lagging significantly behind population growth,” the study also looked at how 16 GTA/southern Ontario municipalities stack up against one another on the development front.

“The municipalities are ranked based on lowest (lower fees, approval timelines and needs less improvement on planning features) to highest (highest fees, approval timelines and needs most improvement in planning features),” authors of the report said. “Overall, Barrie, Oakville and Mississauga rank at the top while Caledon, Oshawa and Richmond Hill benchmark behind all other municipalities.”

Brampton, Markham, Milton, Toronto, Vaughan, Clarington and Innisfil rounded out the top 10. Oshawa placed 14th while Burlington was 16th.

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(Source: Building Industry and Land Development Association)

City of Mississauga officials said they’re pleased with the ranking, but added Canada’s seventh-largest city can do even better.

“We’re making good progress in our efforts to approve and develop new housing, but there is more work to be done,” officials said in a post to social media. “We’ll keep doing our part to help get more homes built in Mississauga.”

Andrew Whittemore, the city’s planning and building commissioner, noted at last week’s council meeting that Mississauga improved its ranking from the association’s last benchmarking study, in which Mississauga placed 10th.

“There’s a lot of effort that’s gone into it,” he said, adding the criteria the city is judged on includes things most needed by both developers and individuals looking to build and renovate.

Ward 7 Coun. Dipika Damerla said it’s not much of a stretch to consider Mississauga’s showing even better than its third-place ranking.

Andrew Whittemore, Mississauga’s planning and building commissioner.

In her mind, she said, Mississauga “is No. 1” given it’s the top “major” municipality on the list in terms of the “number of condos and complex projects we approve.”

Building Industry and Land Development Association officials said the latest benchmarking study is the organization’s third since 2020. The other was released in 2022.

Among many findings, it revealed that, on average, municipal approvals for new housing in the GTA take 20 months. Additionally, each month of delay adds $2,673 to $5,576 in added cost per unit per month, the study showed.

Based on average approval time frames, that adds between $43,000 and $90,000 to the cost of a new home, the study noted.

The benchmarking study comparing the 16 municipalities looks at them over a two-year period.

With more than 1,200 member companies, the Building Industry and Land Development Association represents many in the home building, residential and non-residential land development and professional renovation industries in the GTA.