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Similarly, the GTA-wide rental unit vacancy rate hovers around 1% compared to almost 3% in the greater Montreal area, where average rents are also much cheaper.

In short, the cost of buying or renting a home — especially in the GTA — is increasingly out of reach for many Ontarians — and again, this is largely due to a significant shortage of available homes.

To be clear, all three major Ontario political parties have made promises about housing.

For example, both the governing Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives promise, if elected next month, to maintain last year’s expansion of rent control (a policy capping rent increases), while the New Democratic Party promises even more regulation of rents. This tri-partisan consensus is particularly disappointing given the nearly unanimous opposition to rent control among economists, who note that capping rent increases reduces the incentive to build new housing and forces landlords to cut corners on maintenance and improvements to existing rental units.

Instead of focusing on discredited policies such as rigid rental controls, the parties should propose credible plans to reduce housing costs in Ontario’s most expensive cities by increasing the supply of housing units to respond to growing demand. Otherwise, if supply can’t keep pace with demand, and rental vacancy rates remain below 1%, rents will go up.

The same goes for would-be buyers, who face the inevitable bidding wars (and price increases) that result from too few units for too many bidders. If Ontario’s major parties want to get serious about tackling the cost of living in the GTA and beyond, they can look south of the border for ways to grow the housing supply.