Condo Shortage in Toronto Worsened by Delays in Building Permits- Study

Thousands of condominium units in the city of Toronto are experiencing a large mass of delays as the building approval process continued in its sluggishness, according to a newly issued finding by the University of Toronto’s Building Tall Research Group and the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON).
The document titled “Evaluation of Tall Building Construction permitting process in Toronto” evaluates the official plan and zoning bylaw amendment approval process of 174 new condominium projects in the city of Toronto between 2006 and 2016.
“As the population of Toronto increases, the city has no choice to construct skyward with condos. Nonetheless, our finding proves that, over time, it is taking a long period of time to get condominium projects approved within Toronto’s several policy and regulatory controls,” as explained by Dr Arash Shahi, research manager of Building Tall and a postdoctoral fellow at University of Toronto’s Department of civil Engineering.
Among the study’s most important discoveries is that the period to complete the approval process has more than doubled in the last decade, making things even harder for industry players and future condo purchasers alike.
“A nine-month approval target, as stipulated in the Toronto Development Guide, actually took almost about 42 months on average last year, the report stated.
“42 percent of condominium applications that finally appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) from 2006 – 2016 showed that ‘failure of the city to make a decision known’ compelled an OMB appeal, increasing cost and time than in the city council resolution.”
“A presupposed 50-storey condominium with about 500 units would create about $3.200 of property tax per unit or $1.6 million per building in just 12 months. With an approval delay of about 36 months, that would represent about $5 million in lost property tax revenue for the city,” the report stated.