How Immigration Policy Is Reshaping Canada's Housing Affordability Equation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 1, 2026 — Toronto, Ontario

The intersection of immigration and housing has become one of the most contentious policy debates in Canadian public life. As the federal government navigates record population growth alongside a deepening housing affordability crisis, the question facing policymakers, developers, and communities is not whether these two forces are connected — it is how Canada can build fast enough to honour its commitments to both newcomers and existing residents.

Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi, President & CEO of Sky Property Group Inc., has spent years working at the front lines of this challenge. With a development portfolio focused on land assembly and high-density residential projects across the Greater Toronto Area, she brings a practitioner's perspective to a debate that too often remains theoretical.

"Immigration is not the problem. Lack of housing supply is the problem," says Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi. "Canada has chosen to grow its population — and that is a valid national strategy. But you cannot pursue aggressive population growth without an equally aggressive housing construction agenda. The two must move in lockstep, and right now, they are drastically out of sync."

The Numbers Tell a Clear Story

Canada welcomed over 1.2 million new permanent residents between 2023 and 2025, with temporary residents — including international students, temporary foreign workers, and asylum seekers — pushing net population growth even higher. Statistics Canada reported that the country's population surpassed 41 million in late 2025, driven largely by international migration.

Meanwhile, housing starts have failed to keep pace. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has estimated that Canada needs approximately 3.5 million additional homes by 2030 to restore affordability to 2004 levels. Annual housing starts have hovered between 220,000 and 260,000 units — well below the 500,000+ annual pace that most economists agree is necessary to close the gap.

The result is a structural supply deficit that has driven home prices and rents to historically elevated levels across virtually every major Canadian city, with the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver Area bearing the heaviest burden.

"The math is unforgiving," notes Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi. "When you add hundreds of thousands of people to a market that is already short hundreds of thousands of homes, prices go in one direction. This is not a market failure — it is a planning failure. And it is one that the development industry has been warning about for years."

Supply-Side Solutions: Where the Real Opportunity Lies

Rather than framing immigration as a zero-sum competition for scarce housing, Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi argues that the focus should be on unlocking the supply side of the equation — and that doing so presents one of the most compelling development opportunities in a generation.

"Every newcomer to Canada needs a home. That is not a burden — that is demand. And demand, when paired with the right policy environment, is the engine that drives construction, creates jobs, and builds communities," she explains.

Sky Property Group Inc. has been actively pursuing opportunities in high-density residential development precisely because of this demand dynamic. The company's land assembly strategy in the GTA is designed to bring large-scale housing projects to market in areas where population density is growing fastest — near transit corridors, employment centres, and established community infrastructure.

Key supply-side measures that Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi advocates for include:

Streamlined municipal approvals. "In the City of Toronto, a rezoning application can take three to five years from submission to approval. That timeline is incompatible with the pace of population growth. We need a system that can approve housing in months, not years."

Reduced development charges. "Development charges in some Ontario municipalities have more than doubled in the past decade. These costs are passed directly to homebuyers and renters. If governments are serious about affordability, they need to rethink the fee structure for new housing."

Dedicated immigration-linked housing investment. "There is an opportunity for the federal government to tie immigration targets directly to housing investment — not just targets, but actual capital deployment for infrastructure, serviced land, and purpose-built rental construction."

Public-private partnerships for rental housing. "The private sector cannot solve this alone. We need innovative partnerships between government, institutional investors, and developers to build the kind of purpose-built rental housing that newcomers and young Canadians need."

The GTA: Ground Zero for the Housing-Immigration Nexus

The Greater Toronto Area receives the largest share of newcomers of any metropolitan region in Canada. According to the Toronto Region Board of Trade, the GTA welcomed approximately 200,000 new permanent residents annually in recent years, with additional temporary residents pushing net inflows even higher.

This has created extraordinary demand pressure in a market that was already constrained. Average home prices in the GTA remain above $1 million for detached homes, while average monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment have climbed above $2,400 — pricing out a significant portion of working families and newcomers.

"The GTA is where the housing crisis is most acute, but it is also where the opportunity is greatest," says Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi. "There is enormous latent demand for well-located, well-designed, attainably priced housing. Developers who can navigate the planning system and deliver units at scale will be building into a market that has structural demand for decades to come."

She points to emerging development trends — including build-to-rent projects, modular construction, and community land trusts — as promising models that can help bridge the affordability gap while still generating returns for investors and developers.

A National Strategy, Not a Local Problem

Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi emphasizes that the housing-immigration challenge cannot be solved at the municipal level alone. It requires coordinated action across all three levels of government, with clear accountability and measurable targets.

"We need a national housing strategy that is as ambitious as our immigration strategy," she argues. "That means federal funding tied to outcomes, provincial regulatory reform, and municipal willingness to approve projects. Every level of government has a role, and right now, too many are pointing fingers instead of building homes."

She also cautions against scapegoating newcomers for a crisis that has been decades in the making.

"Immigration did not cause Canada's housing shortage. Decades of underbuilding, restrictive zoning, and underinvestment in infrastructure caused the shortage. Immigration has simply made the consequences of those failures more visible — and more urgent. The answer is not less immigration. The answer is more housing."

Looking Ahead: Building for a Growing Canada

As Canada continues to position itself as a destination for global talent, the pressure on its housing market will only intensify. For developers, investors, and policymakers alike, the imperative is clear: build more, build faster, and build smarter.

"This is a defining moment for the Canadian development industry," says Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi. "The country is growing. The demand is real. The capital is available. What we need now is the political will and regulatory framework to match. At Sky Property Group, we are committed to being part of the solution — and we believe that the companies and communities that rise to this challenge will define the next chapter of Canadian real estate."

About Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi

Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi is the President & CEO of Sky Property Group Inc., a Toronto-based real estate development and property management company with a focus on land assembly and high-density residential development in the Greater Toronto Area. She is a recognized thought leader in Canadian real estate, known for her forward-thinking perspective on housing policy, urban development, and sustainable growth.

Media Contact: Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi / ladanhosseinzadehsadeghi@gmail.com

Keywords: Ladan Hosseinzadeh Sadeghi, Sky Property Group, housing affordability Canada, immigration housing Canada, GTA housing crisis, Canadian real estate development, purpose-built rental, development charges Ontario, housing supply Canada, population growth housing