Barrie housing market

Construction and supply

Builders started 865 homes in Barrie over the 12 months to Sep 2026, down 37.1% from the previous 12 months.

1,736 homes were completed over the same period (up 10.7%), and 2,140 were under construction at the latest count (down 30.2% year over year).

Fewer homes are being started than finished, which means the construction pipeline is shrinking and completions are likely to slow once current projects wrap up.

Building permits, which come before construction starts, covered 1,534 dwelling units over 12 months, up 25.7%. Rising permits usually point to more starts ahead.

Of newly completed homes, 79 were still unsold or unrented at the latest count (down 3.7%), while 253 new homes were sold or rented on completion over the last 12 months (down 54.2%).

Population and housing need

Barrie's population was estimated at 252,446 (July 1, 2025), growing 2.2% over the year.

That works out to 3.4 housing starts per 1,000 residents, and 6.9 completions per 1,000.

Roughly 5,348 residents were added in the latest year, about 3.1 new residents for every home completed. That is more people per new home than the typical household size, so population growth is outpacing new supply.

Rental market

CMHC's Rental Market Survey put the purpose-built rental vacancy rate at 4.2% (October 2025 survey), up 1.5 percentage points from the previous survey. A rate of 3% or more is generally considered balanced or soft, giving renters more choice.

The average two-bedroom rent across all purpose-built units was $1,749 a month, up 2.7% year over year.

Advertised two-bedroom rents averaged $2,100, down 1.4% year over year.

Borrowing costs

Borrowers who took out a new uninsured mortgage in Aug 2026 paid an average of 4.58% on fixed terms of five years or more and 3.90% on variable rates, according to the Bank of Canada. The five-year-plus fixed average is up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier.

Variable rates sit 0.68 points below long fixed terms, so borrowers are paying a premium for payment certainty.

The Bank of Canada's policy rate is 2.50% and the banks' prime rate is 4.70%. Variable-rate mortgages are priced off prime, so they move when the policy rate changes; fixed rates follow Government of Canada bond yields, with the 5-year yield at 3.46%.