Understanding the Housing Approvals Dashboard

In response to the growing demand for greater transparency and timely information on housing activity, we have developed a new Housing Approvals Dashboard. This centralized, interactive tool is designed to track the progress of residential development in Ottawa.  

While the City does not build homes, we do have a role in facilitating new home construction. For example, we approve zoning by-law amendments, building permits and occupancy permits. For its part, the City is also doing what it can to make those approval processes run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

To keep you informed in a timely manner, we now regularly publish updated statistics through the Housing Approvals Dashboard.

For official explanations of terminology used in the dashboard, please review the definitions . Below is a guideline to help you understand some of the key terms.

Dwelling: a place where people can live, whether it’s a single person or multiple people in a household.

• Single: A stand-alone building with one dwelling
• Semi: two dwellings attached, side by side
• Rowhouse: three or more dwellings attached, side by side
• Apartment: a dwelling within a building that contains:

• Two or more dwellings stacked on top of each other
• Secondary smaller dwellings such as, a coach house or basement suite

Official Plan and Zoning Approvals

The Official Plan and Zoning By-law permit the type of development on each parcel of land in Ottawa. If you want to build something that is not already outlined in these documents then you might need an Official Plan or Zoning By-law amendment.

All Other Approvals

New dwellings may require additional more detailed approval before work can begin. Some of these include:

• Minor Variance: a small deviation from the requirements of the Zoning By-law
• Plan of Condominium: separation of dwelling units or land that may be sold as part of a condominium corporation
• Plan of Subdivision: separation of land to create more than two lots where roads, sewer and water services are to be created or extended
• Severance: separation of land to create a new parcel that can be bought or sold separately
• Site Plan Control: a process to ensure that a lot layout is safe, functional and orderly

Building Permits

The City issuance of building permits allows for the construction of, or the change of use to, a residential dwelling.

CMHC Starts

Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)

A housing start is counted when construction work begins on a building that will have at least one dwelling unit. This usually gets recorded when the foundation has been poured.

CMHC Completions

Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

A completion is the stage at which all, or at least 90 per cent in some cases, of the proposed construction work on a dwelling unit has been performed.

There are more housing and development reports available on ottawa.ca if you want to dig deeper.