Projecting Future Housing Growth

Whitehorse is expected to need about 10,205 additional homes over the next 15 years. That is about 3,400 homes every five years, or roughly 680 homes per year. Between 2011 and 2024, construction began on an average of 260 new homes each year.

How Whitehorse Grows

The City is developing a Housing Action Plan to better align the community’s housing needs with where and how new homes are developed. The Official Community Plan’s 20-year Residential Growth Strategy outlines how many homes are needed to accommodate growth, as well as the percentage of units that will come from different types of development. As part of the Housing Action Plan, the City is reviewing the strategy to determine if changes are needed in light of the most up-to-date projections from the Housing Needs Assessment.

A mix of development types will help the City meet its housing needs while balancing different benefits and limitations.

Redevelopment: Introducing new units on lots where units do not currently exist.
Intensification: Increasing the number of units on lots where units already exist (e.g. adding a garden suite in the backyard of a detached house).
Brownfield: Occurs on sites that have been previously developed and require remediation or major modifications prior to redevelopment.
Greenfield: Occurs on larger sites that have not been previously developed (e.g., forests) and require new municipal infrastructure.

To learn more about past and current projects aimed at advancing the Residential Growth Strategy, visit:

As part of the Housing Action Plan, the City is reviewing the strategy to determine if changes are needed in light of the most up-to-date projections from the Housing Needs Assessment.

Where Whitehorse Grows

The Official Community Plan outlines a hierarchy of location preferences for development. Growth areas are within the Urban Containment Boundary, and the outer boundary represents the planned extent of the City’s piped water and sewer infrastructure.

Areas near essential services are prioritized for development. Development within the Urban Core is the focus of higher density residential and new commercial growth. This will largely be in the form of redevelopment, intensification, and brownfield development.

The Official Community Plan identifies greenfield land development options to explore, with some requiring an expansion of the Urban Containment Boundary. However, residential development within existing neighbourhoods and the Downtown are preferred due to the high costs and negative environmental impacts to greenfield development.

The Housing Continuum

Meeting Whitehorse’s housing needs is not only about building more homes. It is also about making sure there is a mix of homes for different people, household sizes, incomes, and stages of life; this is often described as the housing continuum.

A healthy housing system gives residents more options, so they are less likely to be limited to housing that is unaffordable, unsuitable, or does not meet their needs.