Franz Hartmann has a question for Canadians: are the spaces we create to live in actually good?

As executive director of the Alliance for a Liveable Ontario, Hartmann spends his time thinking about housing, infrastructure, and what makes communities work. At a recent Climate Momentum mixer in Stratford, he delivered a direct message. Building homes that people can afford, securing food and water supplies, and creating liveable communities aren't three separate projects. They're interconnected challenges that need to be solved together.

"We're building the wrong mix of housing types. We have too many condos and single-family homes and not enough of the 'missing middle,'" Hartmann said. "We're using the wrong places to build by going to farmland and natural areas. That's causing food insecurity and a growing climate crisis."

It's a problem that's not going away in Ontario. In fact, the data shows it's compounding.

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What the Missing Middle Actually Means

The missing middle refers to building types that fall between single-family homes and high-rise apartments. Duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, laneway homes, and low-rise apartments. The housing types that used to define Canadian cities before strict single-family zoning took over in the post-World War II era.

Urban planner Ken Greenberg describes it as "back to the future" for Toronto's housing stock. "This is the way we built our cities and neighbourhoods prior to WWII," he says. Before zoning regulations essentially "bleached all of that out" and created what's now called "tall and sprawl." Large areas of single-family houses, then a few areas of very tall buildings. We were literally missing the middle.

Missing middle housing has been called such because it's gone "missing" during the past 60 or 70 years. And that absence has created real problems for affordability, livability, and infrastructure efficiency.

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Why Missing Middle Housing Actually Matters for Affordability

Missing middle housing is more affordable to build because the Ontario Building Code permits wood construction on buildings under six storeys tall. It's easier, faster, and cheaper to build with wood than concrete. This allows smaller developers to get involved in the ecosystem, not just the large-scale condo developers who dominate high-rise construction.

Land acquisition is also more economical. Land suitable for high-density development only exists in a fraction of cities, while neighbourhoods zoned for single-family homes make up the vast majority. By allowing missing middle housing in those areas, you expand the pool of buildable land dramatically.

And the units themselves tend to be more affordable. Missing middle units are usually smaller than single-family homes because they share a lot with other homes, which results in lower per-unit land costs and therefore lower housing costs.

Calgary and Edmonton are leading Canada in missing middle housing development, while Toronto and Vancouver are falling behind despite being the cities that need it most. Between 2018 and mid-2025, Calgary and Edmonton saw significant increases in missing middle starts, driven by zoning reforms that made these housing types easier to build.

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The Infrastructure Problem Can't Be Solved Without Housing

Hartmann made it clear that housing and infrastructure aren't separate issues. "As soon as you start talking about housing without infrastructure, you're setting up the housing to fail, just like you're setting up infrastructure without taking into account what it's going to be used for in terms of housing will lead you to failure as well," he said. "It has to be both."

That's not just theory. It's math.

When you build sprawling single-family subdivisions on farmland at the edge of cities, you're creating infrastructure obligations that municipalities can't afford. New roads, new water lines, new sewer systems, new transit routes. All of that costs money to build and even more money to maintain over decades.

Missing middle housing is denser and uses land more efficiently. More people paying taxes per acre for less infrastructure than large-lot single-family homes. That's financially productive for municipalities trying to balance budgets while maintaining aging infrastructure.

The denser development also supports the shops, restaurants, and transit that make neighbourhoods walkable. Walkability reduces reliance on cars, which means less road maintenance, less parking infrastructure, and lower household transportation costs.

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The Tall and Sprawl Problem

Hartmann's criticism of "tall and sprawl" isn't just about aesthetics. It's about how this development pattern fails both affordability and sustainability.

High-rise condos cost more to build because of concrete construction, complex engineering, and expensive land. They're financially viable in limited locations, usually downtown cores where land prices justify the investment. But they don't provide the family-friendly housing that most people actually want.

Single-family homes on farmland at the urban edge create sprawl. They're expensive to service with infrastructure. They require cars for every trip. They consume agricultural land that could be producing food. And they contribute to climate change by increasing vehicle miles traveled and destroying natural carbon sinks.

What's missing is the middle. The duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes that provide density without high-rises. The walkable neighbourhoods with shops on the corner and transit down the street. The housing types that fit between downtown condos and suburban sprawl.

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Security of Tenure Matters More Than Ownership

Hartmann challenged a fundamental assumption about the Canadian dream of homeownership. "I would argue that the most important criteria for having a home now is that you want security of tenure and you want to know that once you've moved in that nobody's going to come and kick you out," he said.

He's right about the problem. Rental laws in Ontario are notoriously weak. Landlords can evict tenants for renovations, for personal use, or simply by making life uncomfortable enough that tenants leave. Without ownership, you don't have security.

"We've been told that a single family home out in suburbia that you own is the ideal. Rental laws are awful in Ontario, so the only way you get security of tenure is if you own," Hartmann said. "But let's imagine a world where security is guaranteed without home ownership. A lot of people would be quite happy if they could move into a non-profit housing provider where they've got proper rights as a tenant."

That's not a radical idea. It's how housing works in countries like Austria and Germany, where non-market housing provides long-term, secure, affordable rentals for millions of people. Not everyone needs to own. But everyone needs security.

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The Alliance for a Liveable Ontario's Five Ways Home

The Alliance for a Liveable Ontario represents more than 220 groups and over 1,000 individual members from diverse sectors: agriculture, urban planning, environment, housing affordability, tenants, neighbourhood associations, labour, healthcare, academia, and business.

They've developed a "Five Ways Home" platform that lays out actionable solutions to Ontario's housing crisis. The platform is built on deep research and represents a coalition that crosses traditional political divides.

Their Fall 2024 Provincial Housing Report Card gave Ontario failing grades in three key areas: building housing in the right places, building a variety of housing types, and investing in non-market affordable housing.

The report criticized the province's focus on building single-family homes on farmland and natural areas, arguing this approach drives up housing costs and contributes to sprawl. It also criticized the failure to encourage construction of a variety of housing types, particularly the missing middle.

"The Province needs to reverse course immediately if it wants to help solve the housing crisis," Hartmann said. "It's time to stop helping developers build more expensive sprawl housing and instead use provincial powers to help build the homes Ontarians need and want."

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Why Politicians Aren't Acting

Hartmann is realistic about the political challenges. Getting decision makers to act requires consistent, repetitive pressure from people politicians answer to.

"I think when politicians start hearing the same story or the same demands from people, especially ones they would otherwise not expect to be saying this, that happens because there's a lot of community mobilizing and a lot of people talking about things," he said.

The Alliance's strategy is to build that broad coalition. When farmers, environmentalists, housing advocates, labour unions, and business groups all say the same thing, politicians have to listen.

But it's an uphill battle. Developers lobby hard for sprawl because that's where they make money. Existing homeowners in single-family neighbourhoods resist densification because they fear change. And municipal governments face constitutional constraints that limit their power.

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The Federal System Is Broken

Hartmann pointed out a structural problem that most people don't think about. "Municipalities are considered creatures of the province under the constitution and they have no independent rights. When our constitution was created in 1867, the world was different and things have changed since then."

That matters because municipalities are responsible for housing, infrastructure, transit, and planning. But they have no constitutional authority and limited revenue-generating power. They depend on property taxes and transfers from provincial and federal governments.

"We need to update that and, most importantly, something that can be done tomorrow is that the federal government can invest money in infrastructure and that money can go directly to municipalities," Hartmann said.

Right now, federal infrastructure funding flows through provinces, which adds layers of bureaucracy and political interference. Direct federal-municipal funding would give cities more autonomy and resources to address housing and infrastructure simultaneously.

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The Real Estate Connection

For real estate professionals and property owners, Hartmann's message has practical implications. The housing types that Ontario needs most, missing middle housing, represent opportunities.

Existing single-family lots in established neighbourhoods could be converted to duplexes, triplexes, or small apartment buildings. That creates more housing supply without consuming farmland or natural areas. It uses existing infrastructure more efficiently. And it provides the family-friendly, ground-oriented housing that people actually want.

Cities like Edmonton have implemented zoning reforms that allow property owners to build or convert properties into multiple units on lots that were once restricted to one unit. This opens opportunities for value-add infill projects and multifamily redevelopment strategies.

For investors, missing middle housing offers better cash flow potential than single-family rentals with lower construction costs than high-rise condos. For municipalities, it provides tax revenue growth without proportional infrastructure costs. For communities, it adds housing supply in walkable neighbourhoods where people want to live.

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How Coldwell Banker Horizon Realty Can Help

At Coldwell Banker Horizon Realty, we understand that the housing market is changing. Zoning reforms, missing middle housing policies, and infrastructure investments are reshaping where and how people buy, sell, and invest in real estate.

Whether you're a homeowner wondering if your property has redevelopment potential, an investor looking for opportunities in missing middle housing, or a buyer searching for family-friendly options in walkable neighbourhoods, we provide the local expertise and market knowledge you need.

The conversation about affordable housing, infrastructure, and liveable communities isn't abstract policy talk. It affects property values, investment opportunities, and where people choose to live.

Contact Coldwell Banker Horizon Realty today to discuss how these trends are shaping real estate in your area and how you can make informed decisions based on where the market is heading.

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The Bottom Line

Building affordable homes and securing infrastructure aren't separate problems. They're interconnected challenges that require coordinated solutions.

Ontario is building the wrong mix of housing in the wrong places at the wrong prices. Too many condos and single-family homes. Not enough missing middle housing. Too much sprawl on farmland. Not enough density in existing neighbourhoods.

The result is a housing crisis that's getting worse, infrastructure costs that municipalities can't afford, and communities that don't work for the people living in them.

Hartmann and the Alliance for a Liveable Ontario have laid out solutions. Build missing middle housing. Stop sprawling onto farmland. Invest in non-market affordable housing. Give municipalities the resources and authority they need. Create security of tenure for renters.

Whether politicians will act depends on whether enough people demand it. Because the spaces we create to live in aren't good right now. And they won't get better without intentional, coordinated action to fix both housing and infrastructure at the same time.