The Real Estate Institute of Canada states that Canada would need to build an additional 3.5 million (yes, million) homes by 2030 to fix housing affordability. They also point out, however, that current building rates are nowhere near the level they would need to be to meet that goal.&nbsp;On September 20, Mark Carney updated Canadians via Instagram that his new federal body, called Build Canada Homes, is officially up and running. Build Canada Homes is the Liberal government’s proposal for fixing the current housing crisis and kicking increased building rates into gear. Today’s let’s provide an overview of the housing initiative and dive into any progress being made or current steps taken, if any.After the election at the beginning of this year, Mark Carney’s Liberal Party announced a new method to tackle the housing crisis. The Government of Canada’s website describes their project as “a bold new approach with unprecedented investments to increase housing supply in Canada.” Build Canada Homes is described as a federal government agency that plans to build more homes at a pace that matches the current need across the country.&nbsp;The government identifies three primary functions of Build Canada Homes: building affordable homes, financing affordable homes, and catalyzing the housing industry. This means the government agency will be directly involved in the construction of these homes. Additionally, they will be providing financing to “support non-market and Indigenous housing providers.” Finally, they intend to “help generate demand for innovative and sustainable building methods like factory-built and prefabricated construction.”&nbsp;They claim they will help fight homelessness “by building transitional and supportive housing” and will “build deeply affordable and community housing for low income households, and partner with private market developers to build affordable homes for the Canadian middle class.” The intention behind creating a separate governmental body is to centralize the construction and financing efforts needed to tackle the housing crisis. The emergence of this new government body involves a transition from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation as the organization delivering funding until Build Canada Homes takes full control.Canadians may be interested in a more transparent breakdown of what exactly the financial aspect of this new project entails. The Prime Minister’s website says that an initial $13 billion will be sent to Build Canada Homes to “get big projects off the ground. According to the Government of Canada’s website, amid the transition to an eventual Build Canada Homes takeover, $1.5 billion in loans was added to the Affordable Housing Fund for projects starting in 2025-2026 “will support the creation of over 5000 new units.” The government says the Affordable Housing Fund will also be used to renovate and repair existing affordable community housing. $1 billion will be used to build transitional and community housing for those who are either homeless or on the cusp of homelessness and intends to pair these housing initiatives with career and health care support.The government wants more innovative and sustainable building technologies to be deployed during this project which involves “an intense focus on using cost-efficient methods of construction such as factory-built, modular, and mass timber.”&nbsp;Is there any progress yet? No – the initiative was just announced. Analysts, including Deeded, described Build Canada Homes as an “ambitious housing plan” and points out that the goal is to build 500,000 new homes each year for the next ten years. They point out that market dynamics, specifically increased demand, may cause affordability discrepancies. They also mention that “coordinating efforts across federal, provincial, and municipal levels may face bureaucratic hurdles” and that the $25 billion proposed for this plan would make this project’s budget extremely tight. In general, it’s far too early to tell whether any progress is on track with their goal. Throughout the upcoming year, the true capability of this project and its effects on housing affordability will become more evident.With our mineral wealth and abundant natural resources, Canada should be the richest country in the world. To suggest the future for many of our citizens is to live in prefabricated modular homes is discouraging, if not heartbreaking.&nbsp;An awful lot of money is going to be spent to create a further dependency on the government. Perhaps it is time to unleash the potential of Canada and Canadians; allowing them to take care of themselves in a low tax, high productivity environment. Lower taxes, specifically on anything related to housing, would be a great start.

Canada’s Big Bet on Modular Housing: Bold Move or More Hurdles?

Canada launches Build Canada Homes, a bold modular housing plan targeting 500K homes per year. Will it solve affordability or add hurdles remains to be seen.

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