Developer disappointed with new federal rental supply measures

The top executive of a Canadian development company says new federal funding efforts to spur rental unit construction have missed the mark.

In its fall economic statement this month, Ottawa announced $15 billion in new loan funding beginning in 2025-26 for the Apartment Construction Loan Program.

Adrian Rocca, CEO of Fitzrovia, told BNN Bloomberg that in the current environment, overall margins for developers “are getting squeezed,” contributing to less supply coming onto the market, and he thinks the recently announced measures don’t go far enough to help. 

“We really need some additional help. I thought we were going get that through the fall economic statement, but I think it really fell short,” he said in a Wednesday interview.