Data · Toronto
Where the new housing is going.
Dwelling units are not spread evenly across Toronto, and they do not follow permit volume. The postal areas issuing the most permits are frequently not the ones producing the most homes.
New-building permits are 7.7% of all issued permits but account for 93% of dwelling units and 68% of declared construction value. Almost everything else in the permit record is renovation, servicing and repair.
The twenty postal areas producing the most homes
These 20 areas account for 103,943 units — 48% of every dwelling unit in the record. Note how far permit count and unit count diverge: high-rise areas produce thousands of units from a handful of permits, while low-rise areas issue hundreds of permits for a few dozen homes.
| Postal area | Units | Permits | Units per permit | Declared value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M5V | 17,015 | 2,995 | 5.7 | $5.7B |
| M4P | 8,405 | 1,301 | 6.5 | $2.4B |
| M5A | 7,840 | 2,484 | 3.2 | $2.7B |
| M2N | 7,008 | 3,630 | 1.9 | $1.9B |
| M4Y | 6,864 | 864 | 7.9 | $1.7B |
| M4W | 6,211 | 2,742 | 2.3 | $3.4B |
| M2K | 5,919 | 1,017 | 5.8 | $1.9B |
| M2J | 5,503 | 1,816 | 3.0 | $1.5B |
| M6K | 4,366 | 2,779 | 1.6 | $1.5B |
| M8V | 4,165 | 2,165 | 1.9 | $1.1B |
| M3C | 3,723 | 1,551 | 2.4 | $1.7B |
| M4S | 3,526 | 1,554 | 2.3 | $1.5B |
| M6J | 3,400 | 3,758 | 0.9 | $1.7B |
| M5B | 3,350 | 1,266 | 2.6 | $1.2B |
| M5G | 3,023 | 2,389 | 1.3 | $3.4B |
| M5E | 2,971 | 490 | 6.1 | $805M |
| M4M | 2,776 | 3,414 | 0.8 | $1.7B |
| M5J | 2,662 | 1,261 | 2.1 | $2.2B |
| M6H | 2,609 | 3,794 | 0.7 | $1.0B |
| M9B | 2,607 | 2,300 | 1.1 | $952M |
Reading it
Unit density per permit is the number that separates the two Torontos in this dataset. An area at ten or more units per permit is building vertically; an area near one is replacing or extending single homes. Both are real construction activity, but they imply completely different supply chains, timelines and buyers.
Source
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Toronto. Derived from the Building Permits – Active Permits dataset published by the City of Toronto under the Open Government Licence – Toronto. Figures on this page count issued permits only. Last refreshed 30 July 2026; most recent permit issued 28 July 2026.