3,000 rental homes are coming to downtown Oshawa

Construction began on 20 August 2026 at the Foundry District in downtown Oshawa, where Medallion Corporation plans about 3,000 rental homes across roughly nine buildings. The first two towers, 10 and 23 storeys, hold more than 500 homes, 30 per cent of them affordable. Leasing is expected to begin in late 2029.

What is being built at the Foundry District?

About 3,000 rental homes on the site of the former Fittings Limited factory in downtown Oshawa. Medallion Corporation broke ground on 20 August 2026 on the first two buildings, at 119 and 151 Bruce Street. Those two rise 10 and 23 storeys and hold more than 500 rental homes between them. The full plan is roughly nine buildings.

The developer's own project site lists studio, one, two and three bedroom suites, and puts the community's arrival in 2029. The site sits beside the Tribute Communities Centre and a short walk from the Oshawa GO station.

When can anyone actually rent one?

Late 2029 for the first two buildings, according to Medallion's release. That is the number worth holding on to.

A groundbreaking is not supply. Nothing about renting or buying in Durham changes this year, or next. The rest of the district follows after the first two towers, and no completion date has been published for the later buildings, so the 3,000 figure is a plan rather than a schedule.

How many of the homes are affordable?

Thirty per cent of the more than 500 homes in the first two buildings are designated affordable. Medallion says a further number will be rent geared to income, but the release gives no count for those, so there is no reliable figure to quote yet.

Why is public money in a private rental project?

Because purpose built rental is difficult to finance, and there is a federal program aimed at exactly that.

Medallion says the project drew 188 million dollars through three channels: CMHC's Apartment Construction Loan Program, the Region of Durham's Regional Revitalization Program, and a grant agreement with the City of Oshawa. The release does not break that total down by source, and we are not going to guess at the split.

CMHC describes the Apartment Construction Loan Program as low cost funding during what it calls the riskiest phase of development, construction through to stabilized operations, with loans starting at 1 million dollars and running up to the full cost of the residential portion of a project.

What should a Durham buyer or owner take from this?

Three things.

If you own in downtown Oshawa, a construction site is arriving now and a finished district is arriving at the end of the decade. Those are two different events with two different effects, and they do not land at the same time.

If you are renting in Durham and waiting for more choice, the date is 2029, not 2026.

If you are buying, the detail to notice is tenure. These are homes that will never be listed for sale. Rental at this scale reshapes a downtown without adding a single unit to the ownership market, which is a different thing from a condominium project of the same size. If you are weighing Oshawa against other markets, you can see what is listed by city, and our buying page covers how we work.