An Update on the Housing Accelerator Fund
The Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) is allocated $4.44 billion over 5 years. Under the HAF, CMHC has committed $4.37 billion in funding towards 230 agreements with sub-national governments. Under these agreements, sub-national governments have agreed to undertake a variety of housing initiatives towards an aggregate target of supplying 112,000 more housing units by 2028 than would have otherwise been created. Very little of the funding allocated under the HAF was spent in its first year. Jurisdictions participating in the HAF issued permits for 31% more units and saw 5% more housing starts than their 2018 to 2023 average. This was both more permits and more starts than non-participating jurisdictions. Changes are not consistent across participating jurisdictions, with increases in the Province of Quebec, Calgary Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and Edmonton CMA largely offset by decreases in the Toronto CMA and other areas of Ontario. Increases in permits and starts in the Province of Quebec, Calgary and Edmonton likely reflect rezoning initiatives that were already well underway or had received legislative approval prior to the signing of those jurisdiction’s Housing Accelerator Fund Agreements.
Funding
The Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) is an initiative to support and incentivize municipalities to take measures to increase the supply of housing. The HAF initially targeted the supply of 100,000 new middle-class homes by 2024-25 and now targets 112,000 new homes by 2028.[^1] The HAF is administered by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and is currently allocated $4.44 billion in funding across 2023-24 to 2027-28, consisting of $3.97 billion allocated in the 2022 Budget, $69 million for administrative costs, and a $400 million top-up allocated in the 2024 Budget.
PBO based on data provided by CMHC.
PBO based on data provided by CMHC.
Under the HAF, CMHC has active agreements with 230 sub-national governments committing $4.37 billion in total funding.[^2] Under these agreements, sub-national governments have agreed to take a variety of housing initiatives. For each initiative, the funding recipient or CMHC has provided an estimate of its impact and, in total they estimate that these initiatives will induce the supply of 119,685 more housing units than would have otherwise been created.
Most funding and anticipated supply are under the Large/Urban Stream of the Housing Accelerator Fund, which accounts for $4.1 billion in committed funding and 113,817 anticipated units. The remaining $261 million for 5,868 units falls under the Small/Rural/Northern/Indigenous Stream.
The HAF agreements provide funding to the province of Quebec and local governments in every other province and territory.
Initiatives
Under their housing agreements, subnational governments (i.e. recipients) have agreed to implement 1,744 initiatives. The largest single commitment is Quebec’s adoption of the Act respecting land use planning and development, accounting for 23,000 incremental units. Beyond that commitment, the largest shares of recipients’ expected 3-year supply are due to implementing incentives, costing and fee structures to encourage things such as affordable housing (12,538 units) and allowing increased housing density on a single lot including promoting “missing middle” housing forms (11,044 units). Participating jurisdictions expect their initiatives to have a greater impact over the longer term, estimating that the initiatives will supply an additional 833,126 incremental units over 10 years. Participating jurisdictions estimate that $3.2 billion will be needed to implement the initiatives set out in their HAF action plans.
Spending
While HAF funding is primarily intended to incentivise municipalities to implement reforms that will increase the supply of housing, HAF funding must still be used for specific purposes related to housing. CMHC was able to provide initial reporting for some participating jurisdictions, including expenditures of funds provided under the HAF for many major cities under the first year of their HAF agreements. Of the $599 million advanced to those participating jurisdictions for the first year of their HAF Action Plan, $93 million (16%) had been spent by the end of that first year.
Progress Toward Targets
For the major municipalities for which data is available, some have significantly exceeded their annualized targeted supply in terms of permits issued, like Calgary, Toronto and Edmonton. Others have permitted fewer units created than under their baseline projections, including Ottawa and Mississauga.
It is also helpful to look to CMHC’s units permitted and construction starts in units by census metropolitan area (CMA), as this data covers more participating jurisdictions, allows us to focus on the most recent results, and facilitates comparisons to historical average figures. In aggregate, from October 2024 to April 2025, the CMAs of jurisdictions participating in the HAF permitted 31% more units and saw 5% more construction starts in units than the 2018 to 2023 seasonally adjusted monthly average for the same areas.
CMA-level data is also available for non-participating jurisdictions, and comparing to non-participating jurisdictions is one way to start to control for the impact of economic conditions on starts. Compared with CMAs centered on non-participating jurisdictions, participating jurisdictions both permitted more units (+31% v -15%) and saw more units started (+5% v -28%) compared with the applicable historical averages.
These changes are not consistent across participating jurisdictions, with increases in permits and starts in the Province of Quebec (+4,666 units started/month), the Calgary CMA (+14,421 units started/month), and the Edmonton CMA (+7,708 units started/month) largely offset by lower permits and starts in the Toronto CMA (-18,219 units started/month) and other CMAs in Ontario (-4,002 units started /month). The Province of Quebec, Calgary, and Edmonton all implemented major rezoning initiatives intended to permit more housing; however, these initiatives were already well underway or had already received legislative approval prior to the signing of those jurisdiction’s Housing Accelerator Fund agreements.[^3] Conversely, Toronto’s decline in starts appears to be driven by economic conditions as permits were only down -148 units permitted/month.