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Cision Canada
19 minutes ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
HOUSING SUPPLY CHALLENGE RECOGNIZES HOUSING INNOVATORS Français
OTTAWA, ON, July 23, 2025 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada is committed to tackling housing challenges and advancing innovative solutions that improve housing outcomes for Canadians. To support the acceleration of housing production, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) today announced the Game-Changer prize recipients of the Housing Supply Challenge (HSC), with $15 million awarded to four submissions: Game-Changer Gold: Promise Robotics – Homebuilding robotic factory as-a-service ™ for industrialized homebuilding at scale Game-Changer Silver: Tapestry Community Capital – Scaling affordable housing development with the power of community investment Mddl – Building the mddl housing ecosystem One Bowl – Tree to Home The Housing Supply Challenge invited citizens, stakeholders and experts to propose solutions to the barriers to new housing supply and distributed $300 million in funding over five years to successful finalists. More information is available on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation website. Quotes: "Innovators across the country have answered the call of the Housing Supply Challenge and I'm thrilled to see the work these Game-Changers are doing to accelerate housing production. These projects will make a positive difference in communities across Canada for generations to come." – The Honourable Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada. Quick facts: The HSC is being delivered by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and aims to: Provide new resources and find solutions to enhance housing supply and provide a platform to share these models with communities across Canada. Help address barriers to housing supply and affordability, showcase new ideas and solutions and cultivate collaboration and partnerships. The HSC is a component of Impact Canada, a Government of Canada-wide initiative to help departments accelerate the adoption of innovative funding approaches to deliver meaningful results to Canadians. CMHC administers this program on behalf of the Government of Canada as part of the National Housing Strategy. The Government of Canada's National Housing Strategy (NHS) is an $115+ billion plan to give more Canadians a place to call home. Progress on programs and initiatives are updated quarterly on the Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) website. The Housing and Infrastructure Project Map shows affordable housing projects that have been developed. As of March 2025, the federal government has committed $65.84 billion to support the creation of over 166,000 units and the repair of over 322,000 units. These measures prioritize those in greatest need, including seniors, Indigenous Peoples, people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and women and children fleeing violence. Additional Information: SOURCE Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
CTV News
4 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Tecumseh rejects four units, risks $3.2 million in federal funding
The Town of Tecumseh will not move forward with four units 'as-of-right,' risking millions in federal funding. Council narrowly voted against a motion Tuesday that would have seen three additional residential units (ARU) allowed on a single lot with certain restrictions. It ended more than a year of contentious discussions over the matter, which was tied to nearly $4.4 million pledged to the town in March 2024 through the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF). 'It's maybe not a clear understanding in terms of what … HAF is really all about,' said Gary McNamara, the mayor of Tecumseh, who voted in favour of the proposal. Requirements for municipalities to permit fourplexes as-of-right became a condition of HAF funding. Under provincial legislation, applicable homes can already create two ARUs. McNamara said the initiative was intended to create more affordability and options in the housing market. While about $1.1 million of the funding has already been spent, the remainder is now at risk of being clawed back. The remaining $3.2 million equates to a 4.15 per cent tax levy hike, according to a staff report. The town plans to write a letter to the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation, the administrator of the HAF, and inform them of council's decision. 'It's in their hands,' McNamara said. Throughout the process, residents have openly voiced opposition to four units, largely due to fears over how it would impact the town's infrastructure and character. On Tuesday, one resident abruptly left council chambers after a tense exchange with McNamara. Joe Bachetti, Teucmseh's deputy mayor, told council the attached funding should not 'outweigh' the concerns of residents. 'This is wrong and it's not what the residents are telling me they want to see, and it's certainly not my vision for the future of Tecumseh 10 or 20 years from now,' said Bachetti. The vote to move forward with four units failed 3-4, with Bachetti, and councillors James Dorner, Rick Tonial, and Tania Jobin voting against. Previously, the City of Windsor's application for tens of millions through HAF was rejected after city council voted against the permitting of fourplexes across the city.
Hamilton Spectator
5 hours ago
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton non-profit pivots to affordable fourplexes
A little tired-looking, the three modest bungalows on quiet northeast Hamilton side streets have clearly done their time. But the non-profit that owns the homes aims to tear them down to build anew and squeeze more house into their lots. They're the first subjects of the 'Kiwanis Small Lot Intensification Project,' which aims to turn the single-family homes into affordable fourplexes. A change to city zoning policies last year that allowed for the 'as-of-right' construction of triplexes and fourplexes opened the door for the project, says Brian Sibley, executive director of Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes. 'All of a sudden, fourplexes just became financially viable for us because we already owned the land mortgage-free.' Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes hopes to ease the affordability crunch by turning single-family homes, including this bungalow at 138 Paling Ave., into fourplexes under new city zoning rules. The non-profit owns 82 homes on 75-by-25-foot (or larger) lots that could accommodate fourplex conversions, Sibley noted. 'Our plan over the next few years is to build 50 of these, so that's 200 units.' Kiwanis, one of Hamilton's biggest providers of affordable housing, owns and manages about 1,000 homes in the area. In recent years, it has embarked upon larger, multi-residential projects, including a 126-unit building in the works at 1540 Upper Wentworth St. on the Mountain and 60 units off Sanford Avenue North in the lower city. During the 1980s recession, a period of sky-high interest rates, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), as mortgage insurer, wound up with homes that financially distressed owners had walked away from. CMHC offered them to non-profits like Kiwanis at much lower mortgage rates to provide them as affordable housing , Sibley noted. Over the years, Kiwanis has sold them to help fund its capital projects, but with the city's multiplex tweak, it realized the sales were also contributing to the gentrification, he said. 'We were becoming part of the problem.' The three Kiwanis homes — 53 Fraser Ave., 97 Garside Ave. and 138 Paling Ave. — are to make way for the construction of three-storey fourplexes this year. Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes hopes to ease the affordability crunch by turning single-family homes, including this bungalow at 97 Garside Ave., into fourplexes under new city zoning rules. Each will have a one-bedroom unit and three two-bedroom units. The goal is to work out design, construction and costing kinks for efficient assembly of components on lots. Then the idea is to scale it up and offer a template to other non-profits, Sibley says. 'So that we can increase the levels of affordability, but also increase how fast we can build these.' Housing affordability in Hamilton has steadily eroded, with house prices and rents steadily marching upward. Of 216,390 households in the city, about 28,000 — or 13 per cent — are in 'core housing need,' the CMHC notes, citing information from Statistics Canada's 2021 national household survey. That means homes don't meet one or more standards, including state of repair, crowding or affordability (costs are less than 30 per cent of before-tax household income). With the housing market increasingly out of reach, roughly 6,000 households await subsidized units in Hamilton. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Vancouver Sun
a day ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
The great ‘supply' solution to Canada's housing crisis flounders — further
The unspoken maxim within Canadian political circles, I'm told, is that elected officials just can't win when it comes to either public health care or housing affordability. No matter what politicians do, voters will continue to complain about poor access to medical care or feel aggravated about super-expensive housing prices. That's often why, when it comes to the massive files of health and housing, elected officials go out of their way to at least look like they're doing something. And to look like they're being bold. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney has become the latest Canadian politician to boast that he's going to fix things. He's going to make sure 500,000 new homes get built every year. Stay on top of the latest real estate news and home design trends. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Westcoast Homes will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. In his May election victory speech, Carney pledged to 'build, baby, build.' It's time, he said, 'to build twice as many homes every year.' With big government subsidies, he envisions establishing an 'entirely new housing industry.' Sounds good. But there are many reasons this isn't going to happen. New Zealand offers a striking, disturbing sign of the times. A signature policy of former prime minister Jacinda Ardern's Labour government in 2018 was to build 100,000 affordable housing units in a decade — with taxpayers funding the way. Alas, the island country had completed just 2,389 units by last year. Renaud Brossard of the Montreal Economic Institute think-tank says: 'If you look at government programs that have been done throughout the world, (the New Zealand example) is probably the closest thing to what Mark Carney is pitching.' You can understand politicians' need for creating the optics of dynamism. But the idea of suddenly cranking up construction to 500,000 new homes a year, through a program Carney calls Build Canada Homes, has always been a dream. The target took shape with a 2023 report by CMHC, when it publicly asked: How much housing would we need to restore affordability? The CMHC estimated that, given rapid population growth through international migration, Canada would need 3.5 million homes by 2030 or about 500,000 a year. The trouble is 'this analysis has always been theoretical,' says Steve Pomeroy, a housing industry professor at McMaster University in Hamilton. 'Despite the report's own caveats that such a goal was highly unrealistic and could lead to financial instability, this number quickly morphed into official policy. It's now cited as fact in government platforms and speeches, treated as an unquestionable goal.' There are many reasons it's not about to occur, Pomeroy said, at least not to anywhere near the extent vowed by Carney. They include the availability of construction workers, strains on municipal infrastructure and, most importantly, a cyclical downturn in the housing industry. The potential profits just aren't there right now. Nevertheless, even though Housing Minister Gregor Robertson won't acknowledge it outright, Pomeroy says the federal government's dogged plan continues to be to 'flood the market with so much housing that prices and rents will fall to pre-pandemic levels.' It's the same goal of the City of Vancouver and the B.C. government, including of the provincial housing minister appointed this week, Christine Boyle, a former Vancouver councillor who has aggressively championed the erection of more residential highrises. Even if the 'flood-the-market' ambition were possible, Pomeroy said, it would lead to 'massive oversupply.' One key reason is Ottawa last year moderately lowered its levels for migration, which is this country's only source of population growth and which has been a huge contributor to demand. In light of such impediments, consider recent comments by Mark Goodman, a major Vancouver commercial real estate broker, and one of the most outspoken advocates of supply, supply, supply. This month Goodman vigorously defended those in the development industry who are assembling properties and getting areas, especially along the Broadway corridor, upzoned for apartments towers. 'Getting a project approved and into the hands of a builder who can see it through construction should be seen as a positive,' he wrote in this month's Goodman Report. 'Instead of condemning those who participate and seek fair compensation for their efforts, we should focus on the main goal: getting more homes approved, built and into the hands of tenants and homeowners.' Goodman argued it's wrong to view the 'thousands of units that have been approved but not yet built as evidence' of speculation. Bringing a dose of reality, perhaps inadvertently, to Carney's commitment to annually build 500,000 new homes for the next five years, Goodman argued that 'these owners aren't holding land in some evil inflationary plot. They're stalled because there is no way, in this market, to finance those projects: they just don't pencil.' Furthermore, professor Patrick Condon of the University of B.C.'s landscape architecture school, says the mad rush of Canadian cities to upzone property to encourage frantic housing activity is doing the opposite of reducing prices. While the intention seems to make sense on paper, Condon said, it doesn't work to any great extent. Upzoning mostly just encourages land speculation. As a result of the City of Vancouver, for instance, frequently upzoning properties with the goal 'to increase supply and thereby restore affordability,' Condon said, 'land values have ballooned by over 600 per cent (since the 1970s). Today, the typical Vancouver parcel is often assessed at ten times the value of the modest structure that sits upon it. A staggering mismatch.' Meanwhile, with prices slowly going down, many of the highrises being approved aren't actually getting underway. Developers are nervous. In the Toronto and Hamilton regions, Urbanation, a real estate consultancy, says 21 big housing developments, amounting to more than 4,400 condo units, have been cancelled since last year, which is the worst rate since 2018. Many were to be marketed to investors, foreign and domestic. Across Metro Vancouver, according to the Urban Development Institute, the number of unsold condos is set to soar to 3,500 by the end of next year. 'In high-cost cities like Toronto and Vancouver, condo prices are falling as amateur investors disappear from the market. Much of the recent price and rent boom was driven by unrealistic expectations of fast returns, bolstered by rapid immigration and speculation,' said Pomeroy. 'We're already seeing signs of what happens when supply overshoots demand.' dtodd@
CBC
a day ago
- Business
- CBC
N.S. housing construction starts must double for next decade to restore affordability: CMHC
The pace of housing construction starts in Nova Scotia needs to more than double for the next decade in order to restore affordability to pre-pandemic levels, according to a recent Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report. Canada's housing agency estimates that the province's current rate of housing starts is about 5,400 a year. According to the report, Nova Scotia will need to average more than 12,500 starts annually between 2025 and 2035. "We need [supply for] rental, we need home ownership, we need everything across the board," said CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth. He said it will be a challenge to hit the housing starts needed. In the last few years, people in the construction industry have reported labour shortages that are having an impact on projects. "It's a stretch goal, but that's why we need everybody [governments and the private sector] to work together on this," ab Iorwerth said. He said governments need to make development processes more efficient while builders and developers need to find ways to improve productivity through approaches like prefab manufacturing. The CMHC's latest update on housing supply gaps looks at what it would take to return house prices to being either no higher than 30 per cent of average gross household income or no higher than 2019 levels in less affordable regions. The report's regional breakdowns show Ontario and Nova Scotia have the most significant supply gaps by province, while Montreal faces the largest gap of any major city. Affordable housing researcher Catherine Leviten-Reid said the type of housing we build in the future matters and isn't something addressed in the report. Some experts, including Leviten-Reid, have said more non-market housing like those owned by governments or non-profits is needed to ensure a more affordable housing system. "Those providers are not profit-seeking and so they're not going to be charging the same kind of high rents as our for-profit housing developers are," said Leviten-Reid, an associate professor at Cape Breton University. "Why not tackle the affordability issue by increasing supply specifically within those non-market sectors?" Leviten-Reid added that regulations should also be considered, like vacancy control to prevent affordable apartments from being pushed to much higher market rents when new tenants move in. Ab Iorwerth agrees more support is needed for low-income households, adding that "middle-class Canadians are also feeling the pinch and more housing is needed to get them … back to affordability." If Nova Scotia can ramp up housing construction, the CMHC estimates home prices could fall from an average of about $511,000 to under $406,000 by the end of 2035. Rents could be six per cent lower than where they're currently projected to be by that time. The CMHC has changed its target of affordability when making projections about supply gaps. "Restoring affordability to levels last seen two decades ago isn't realistic, especially after the post-pandemic price surge," the report said. It notes the new threshold of restoring affordability to pre-pandemic levels is not an official government target, but illustrates the scale of the challenge of making housing affordable.
