The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is the 10th largest urban area in Canada and among the fastest growing in the country. It's comprises the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge which collectively grew by over 100,000 people between July 1 2019 and July 1 2024. The Region is among the largest in Southern Ontario only being surpassed by Hamilton, Mississauga, Brampton, Ottawa and Toronto. The Region is also home to 4 rural townships which are home to numerous towns and villages, such as Elmira and New Hamburg. The three cities have a combined population of 627,729 as of July 1 2024, while the CMA (Cities and surrounding townships) has a population approaching 700,000.
In Waterloo Region, , the region contains 61 highrises over and 110 high-rise buildings that exceed in height. The tallest buildings built and proposed within the Region are in Kitchener's downtown core which will be home to the Region's first skyscrapers (150m+). The tallest building completed in the Region is in Kitchener with the DTK Condos at the corner of Duke and Frederick St, this can be seen in the center of the image to the right. The majority of the high-rises in the area are in Kitchener, however Waterloo has a significant amount in the Northdale area.
The tallest building under construction in Waterloo Region is TEK Tower located in Kitchener, at 146 m (479ft) and 45 floors. It structurally topped out in the summer of 2025. , there are at least 184 high-rises under construction, approved for construction, and proposed for construction in the Waterloo Regional Municipality, of which 91 are within Kitchener. The tallest approved building within the Region is the 50 floor (185m) Station Park E building which will complete the 5 tower Station Park development. If approved and constructed, the currently proposed 50 Borden Ave S will overtake Station Park E to become the tallest building in the Region standing at an astounding 57 floors (187.8m) over downtown Kitchener.
The vast majority of the development occurring within the Region is along the LRT line which was completed and opened in June of 2019. Since then the area along the LRT has seen remarkable growth and continues to see this growth today.
Each city in the Region, as well as the townships have the power to determine the zoning and thus the built form of the city/towns. This greatly influences the amount of development and the type that can occur, in the coming sections this will become more prevalent.
The city of Kitchener recently updated the zoning within the downtown core as well as all areas along the LRT. This includes every major transit station area (MTSA) for the ION as well as the future Sportsworld MTSA which is part of phase 2 of the ION. This process to update the zoning was called Growing Together, through the process all existing zoning within the MTSAs, which included zoning dating back to 1985 was removed and replaced with 4 new zones. These zones are called strategic growth areas (SGA), these SGAs are split into SGA-1, SGA-2, SGA-3 and SGA-4. Each zone covers approximately 25% of the MTSAs within the city. The most restrictive zone is SGA-1 which allows for a maximum height of 4 floors and a minimum floor space ratio (FSR) of 1. The SGA-2 zone allows for a maximum height of 8 floors and a minimum FSR of 1, this zone is generally seen as the transition zone between the SGA-1 and higher density SGA-3 and SGA-4 zones. The SGA-3 zone allows for a maximum height of 28 floors with the same density restriction as SGA-1 and SGA-2. Lastly the SGA-4 zone allows for unlimited height. Within each of these zones there is no parking required regardless of how many units are in place. The city has provided minimum amenity space requirements for all of these zones, likewise the city has developed a concept called priority streets in these zones where a certain amount of the road frontage must be community facing on the first two floors of the building, this could be a school, community centre or commercial space among other uses. Through the Growing Together project the city of Kitchener won numerous awards, for example it won a Smart50 Award in 2023 where it was announced as one of the top-3 projects overall.
The areas outside of the MTSAs still have relatively restrictive zoning with single family housing being the primary built form, however there are various nodes and corridors in the city that are experiencing densification. Much of this is occurring in far reaching areas of the city (new subdivisions). This will be changing in the coming years however as the city is looking to expand the existing SGA zones to larger areas of the city as part of the Kitchener 2051 Official Plan update. This will make corridors in the city such as Ottawa Street, as well as Nodes such as Highland/Fischer Hallman and Strasburg and Block Line have the same SGA zoning as the MTSAs.
The city of Waterloo has updated their zoning bylaw recently along the LRT much like Kitchener however this was restricted to areas north of Columbia St. These areas have a new zone called station area mixed use (SAMU). The SAMU zone has the largest heights in the city and likewise the highest densities. The SAMU zone allows for a maximum height of 30 floors/105 meters. In the rest of the city there are various other zones but much like Kitchener the heights are concentrated along the LRT line. The one notable exception to this is in the Northdale area as the area is home to the primary student residences for both the University of Waterloo and Laurier. This area is also home to some significant height.
The Northdale area is home to the RN zones of Waterloo, in these zones the maximum building height corresponds to the zone, RN-6, RN-12 and RN-25 each is representative of the maximum number of floors allowed and likewise has some of the taller buildings in Waterloo. Along major corridors such as Weber and King there is existing height and the zoning is generally permissive of the height through the C1, RMU and C5 zones which all allow for varying heights and densities, namely each one of these zones have maximum heights similar to the RN zones however these correspond to the building height in meters instead of floors. For example C1-20, C1-30, C1-40, C1-60, and C1-81.
Cambridge has the most antiquated zoning within the Region, however they are currently going through a process to update their bylaw. The update will allow for residential zones throughout Cambridge to have a maximum height of 15 floors, still well below KWs height limits. Within the downtowns (Galt, Hespeler and Preston) there will be densification possible but not on the magnitudes occurring in Kitchener and Waterloo. The core areas of Preston and Hespeler will allow for a maximum of 5 floors. Meanwhile Galt will allow for similar heights to what is presently allowed (0-34m). Cambridge however doesn't have the LRT yet so the bylaw will likely be updated in coming years once construction has started.
This list ranks buildings in Waterloo that stand at least tall, based on CTBUH height measurement standards. This includes spires and architectural details but does not include antenna masts.
The following lists are split up by city due to the vast number of projects that have been proposed and are under construction.
Kitchener has two lists one for projects that are official (OPA/ZBA/SPA) and another that is for publicly rumored projects, for example developer lobbying from Growing Together, or renders from a developers website.
<nowiki>*</nowiki>The heights of "The Metz" buildings have increased but the information on how tall is not yet public, what is known is that the buildings will not be taller than 38 floors. Within the City Council meeting the developer stated buildings D-G will be getting the height increases (combined to be 40 stories of increase).