In the middle of a housing crisis, Calgary is approving four times more homes per capita than Montreal
March 31, 2026
The housing crisis spans the entire country. The response from cities does not. Building permit data from five major Canadian metros reveals a striking gap: in 2024, Calgary approved 16.7 homes per 1,000 residents, compared to just 3.9 in Montreal.
Between 2019 and 2024, Alberta's cities accelerated massively. Toronto bounced back from a historic low. Montreal, meanwhile, cut its housing approvals in half, at the exact moment the shortage was deepening most.
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homes approved per capita in Calgary (2024)
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homes approved per capita in Montreal (2024)
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gap between the two cities
Alberta: Canada's construction leader
Calgary and Edmonton dominate the Canadian residential construction rankings. In 2024, Calgary approved 22,325 homes; Edmonton, 14,437. Per capita, the gap with other major cities is clear: Calgary is nearly twice Toronto and more than four times Montreal.
2024 Comparison
Homes approved per 1,000 residents
Source: municipal building permits (field dwelling_units_created). Population: 2021 Census (Statistics Canada). Five of the 17 cities available in BuildData consistently report this field.
Alberta builds with volume, not height: the large majority of projects in Calgary are single-family homes or small multi-unit buildings. BuildData shows an average of 1 to 2 units per permit. The numbers come from permit density, not tower height.
Toronto: waking up after a pause
Toronto shows the most volatile trajectory of the five cities. After a peak of 14,004 homes in 2020, the city dropped to 7,262 in 2022, then tripled in two years to reach 21,596 in 2024. This instability reflects the nature of Toronto's construction market: with an average of 12 units per permit in BuildData, a single large tower approval can swing the annual statistics.
Per-capita rank, 2019 → 2024
How cities shifted rank
Homes approved based on the dwelling_units_created field in municipal permits. 2024 data is preliminary for some cities depending on permit submission schedules.
The catch-up is real, but per capita, Toronto still sits at half of Calgary's rate: 7.7 homes per 1,000 residents versus 16.7.
Montreal: the paradox of a city that slowed down
In 2019, Montreal was the most productive city by absolute volume: 18,164 homes approved, more than Calgary, Toronto, or Edmonton. Five years later, it ranks last on a per-capita basis with 3.9 per 1,000, and its total volume has fallen by 55%.
This isn't a density vs. sprawl issue: BuildData shows an average of roughly 9 units per permit in Montreal, indicating significant multi-unit construction. The problem isn't the type of development; it's the number of projects getting approved. Montreal hasn't changed its urban model over five years. It has simply approved fewer of them.
What the data shows, and what it doesn't
This data measures homes approved, not homes built. A permit doesn't guarantee a construction start; a project can be cancelled or delayed. The data also doesn't capture approval timelines, construction costs, or zoning policies that shape developer decisions.
What permits measure precisely is the administrative trajectory of a city: how many projects cleared the first step of the process. And that trajectory is revealing. Calgary accelerated by 89% over five years. Edmonton by 80%. Toronto, despite its volatility, grew by 203%. Montreal fell by 55%. Winnipeg by 11%.
Housing approvals per capita
2019–2024 change: who accelerated, who fell back
Full data
Homes approved, five cities, 2019–2024
City
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Chg.
Calgary
11 811
11 233
16 126
16 017
18 560
22 325
+89%
Edmonton
8 027
10 483
10 029
12 406
9 579
14 437
+80%
Toronto
7 123
14 004
13 826
7 262
10 871
21 596
+203%
Montréal
18 164
14 777
13 094
7 551
6 261
8 155
−55%
Winnipeg
5 227
4 023
5 923
4 275
4 799
4 650
−11%
What this means for 2025 and 2026
The housing crisis won't resolve itself evenly. Cities that accelerated approvals, Calgary and Edmonton leading the way, are building a capacity buffer that will help absorb growing demand. Those that slowed down, Montreal and Winnipeg, are accumulating a structural deficit that coming years will need to address.
Toronto may offer the most instructive lesson: its volatile numbers show that a city can quickly reverse course when conditions allow. The rebound from 2023 to 2024, from 10,871 to 21,596 homes approved, illustrates that the obstacles aren't purely structural. Administrative decisions, faster approvals, revised zoning policies can shift the numbers in a single year.
The crisis spans the entire country; the responses do not. Permit data shows that some cities managed to accelerate when pressure mounted. Others didn't, and the shortage is deepening as a result. The gap between Calgary and Montreal, four times more homes per capita, isn't a geographic given. It's a measure of political will.
Methodology
Data sourced from the BuildData API, which normalizes building permits from 17 Canadian municipal open data portals. Housing figures reflect the dwelling_units_created field in each permit, as reported by each city. These are permits issued, not housing starts (CMHC data).
Per-capita calculations use city proper populations from the 2021 Census (Statistics Canada): Calgary 1,336,000; Edmonton 1,010,899; Toronto 2,794,356; Montreal 2,115,581; Winnipeg 749,607. Only five of the seventeen cities covered by BuildData consistently report the dwelling_units_created field.
Sample query to replicate the analysis:
GET /permit/stats?municipality=calgary
&group_by=year
&issued_after=2019-01-01
Returns annual statistics by city, including total homes approved. The municipality, permit_type, issued_after, and issued_before parameters let you build your own slices. 17 cities, updated daily, 100 free requests per day.
Access building permit data from 17 Canadian cities.
BuildData