Housing Needs Assessment 2025

North Grenville’s Housing Needs

The Municipality of North Grenville worked with consultants from Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. (in association with Tim Welch Consulting Inc.), to prepare a Housing Needs Assessment. This Housing Needs Assessment (or HNA) looks at current and forecast (10-year) housing needs in North Grenville and identifies gaps between housing demand and supply. Download Housing Needs Assessment 2025 here.

Housing Needs Assessments are important tool for municipalities that need to understand housing supply and housing need in order to ensure that supply is aligned with need, especially as the trend toward rapid growth continues in North Grenville.

The assessment considers:

Economic conditions: The conditions that create opportunity and attract people and investment.

Demographics: Who lives here and what kind of housing they need

Regional and local real-estate development trends that are influencing current housing trends across North Grenville

The study included a technical analysis of the housing data from various levels of government and a community engagement component which comprised interviews with various key informants to facilitate in-depth conversations on the housing needs of the North Grenville community.

North Grenville has experienced strong population growth and demand for all different forms of housing over the past decade. The Municipality has also seen increasing housing prices and housing rental rates over the past five years. These price increases have been significantly higher than the rate of income growth or inflation, which has eroded housing affordability in the community. A range of demographic and economic factors is driving this shift, including growth in regional and local employment opportunities and an aging population.

The findings from the technical analysis and community engagement suggest that North Grenville has a demand for diverse forms of housing to meet the growing needs of the current population from a household affordability lens. This need includes an estimated 150 households of unmet demand.

There are also 210 households in severe core need in North Grenville, as identified through the 2021 Census data. Ongoing efforts to address this affordable housing need are a high priority for the Municipality.

What is Recommended & What is Being Done

The Housing Action Plan in the Housing Needs Assessment includes short-term (up to one year) and long-term (one year or more) initiatives as follows:

Action Type	Short-Term Focus	Long-Term Focus
Policy Changes	Review zoning to reduce barriers for medium-density, high-density, and Additional Residential Unit (A.R.U.) development (DONE) Review CMHC Housing Design Catalogue and identify zoning by-law changes required to allow development of these designs without any planning approvals (IN-PROCESS) Conduct a Seniors' Housing Strategy (TBD)	Adopt zoning changes (DONE) Update the affordable housing definition (IN-PROCESS)
Process/Incentives	Introduce regulatory incentives for density, rental, or affordable housing developments (IN-PROCESS) Develop a monitoring framework to track outcomes of the Official Plan (O.P.), in particular housing targets (IN-PROCESS) Adopt a Community Improvement Plan (C.I.P.) to support affordable, rental, and higher-density housing (IN-PROCESS) Identify suitable land for the development of long-term care and seniors' housing, affordable, and supportive housing based on housing needs (DONE)	Adopt a Community Planning Permit System (CPPS) to streamline the development process (IN-PROCESS) Use insights from the monitoring program to set new O.P. goals (TBD) Facilitate affordable/supportive housing development through land donation or fee waivers (IN-PROCESS) Plan for municipal infrastructure upgrades required to accommodate planned future growth (IN-PROCESS)

As North Grenville continues to grow, demand for new housing units within the community is anticipated to rise.

Looking forward, the increasing cultural diversity, an aging population, growing demands from new families, and declining housing affordability will require that the Municipality promotes and supports a broad range of new housing products by location, type, built-form, density, and price/affordability.

The Municipality is meeting this need for diverse affordable housing via the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) program which is enabling many of the recommendations made by the HNA including the ARU Initiative which allows for the infill development of units on existing residential properties. In addition, the Municipality is involved in and pursuing projects large and small such as the partnership with Shalom Small Homes and the forthcoming Bell Hall retrofit on the Kemptville Campus that will see 60 new affordable units in the Municipality.