By Sammy Hudes
The Ontario House Builders’ Affiliation, which represents greater than 4,000 corporations providing providers similar to growth and renovation, mentioned the tariffs might immediate an financial slowdown and result in decreased funding in residential actual property.
The group’s CEO Scott Andison warned that may very well be “a brutal blow to the housing sector and due to this fact to housing affordability.”
“Once you toss something as dramatic as commerce tariffs into an setting that’s already affected by low margins, excessive rates of interest and excessive enter prices, the potential for prices … going up makes builders fairly nervous,” he mentioned in an interview
“That is simply one thing that places the event market right into a little bit of chaos.”
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an government order on Monday to levy 25 per cent tariffs on metal and aluminum imports to his nation starting March 12 — a transfer that Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing known as “flawed on so many ranges.”
Laing mentioned Trump’s determination “makes it clear that perpetual uncertainty is right here to remain.”
It comes amid Trump’s menace of 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canadian imports, with a decrease 10 per cent levy on Canadian vitality. Trump has delayed these till at the least March 4 in response to frame safety commitments.
Information from the united statesNational Commerce Administration reveals the U.S. is Canada’s largest marketplace for aluminum, with over three million tonnes exported to the U.S. final yr.
BMO economist Robert Kavcic mentioned Canada’s complete metal and aluminum exports to the U.S. final yr had been $35 billion, or roughly one per cent of GDP.
Andison mentioned a rise in the price of building supplies would increase Canadian house costs at a time when the sector is already struggling to maintain up with rising prices because of inflation.
He mentioned enter prices for supplies similar to lumber rose through the pandemic and by no means returned to pre-COVID ranges.
“Once you begin making Canadian merchandise much less of curiosity to different markets similar to south of the border within the U.S., that reduces the quantity being produced as a result of markets have decreased exterior of Canada,” mentioned Andison.
“And once you begin lowering the quantity that’s being produced, the price of home gross sales clearly goes up.”
Potential retaliatory tariffs might additionally play a job in making housing costlier, he mentioned, noting round $20 billion in Canadian metal and aluminum merchandise are despatched south of the border per yr.
Andison mentioned two-way tariffs on a broad vary of building supplies past simply metal and aluminum — similar to cement, gypsum and lumber — might drive up prices “right into a loopy stage that makes any building unviable.”
“Proper now, our builders can construct houses, however the issue is that they must construct them at a worth that customers can not afford, notably first-time homebuyers,” he mentioned.
“They’re numbers which can be simply in some ways exterior of their scope.”
— With recordsdata from David Boles in Edmonton
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 11, 2025.
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Final modified: February 11, 2025