That speaks to the presentations you had in previous weeks, particularly from CMHC, on the amount of supply we actually require in the country.
I think it is important to clarify the nature of the CMHC report alongside the TD projections of supply requirements. There are two elements to supply requirements. The basic requirement is related to population growth—how many people are coming and the household formation rates, both as a result of immigration and of kids leaving the family home and creating their own households. For that, CMHC has estimated we need, give or take, 240,000 to 250,000 new homes a year. On top of that, they've estimated we need to build an extra 3.5 million homes, essentially to flood the market and drive down prices.
It's an empirical, econometric, theoretical study that says that if we were to do that, this would be the outcome, but the reality is that the market doesn't really work that way. Builders won't build if they can't sell. CMHC itself won't provide mortgage insurance for pre-sales until they reach a certain level, and if there aren't ultimate buyers there, achieving that objective is unrealistic.
I think we do need to recalibrate those estimates in a more realistic way to say, “Now that we've seen this significant level of population growth, let's update those estimates of how much housing we actually need for household growth,” and it's probably somewhere between 240,000 and 500,000. That work hasn't been done, and I think it really does need to be done so that they have a better idea.
It's not just the absolute number of homes we need to be creating, but also the types of homes, as Mr. Bourque mentioned. We have to make sure we are creating the right type of supply and not just building small closets in apartment towers for investors to buy and rent out in the short-term rental market. We need to be building homes for Canadians, so we need to recalibrate those estimates.
I'm not sure if that entirely answers your question, but I think that's the....