The Prime Minister announced a new government agency to oversee billions in financial incentives for developers, a plan he spoke about during his election-campaign appearance on Village Media’s podcast
It’s trickle down housing affordability… I’m sure it’ll work this time!
Kidding aside though, I’m personally a bit curious to see how it works out – I’m cautiously optimistic simply because it is, ultimately, a different sounding approach than anything I’ve seen in my few decades of voting. Personally, I’d love the idea of getting a customised eco-friendly sustainability oriented pre-fab home that I could plop down on some land somewhere for a reasonable price – I’d likely trade in my vancouver condo for it if I could at this point.
Like even the idea of having the opportunity to have a say in the design of your home, would be a huge improvement to the current setup for home owners, especially those in Strata. Like older buildings are often a bit more affordable upfront, with higher maintenance costs due to the age. They’re also often way behind in terms of general amenities (shared laundry is still a thing, in a $600k+ vancouver condo building!), and security/climate preparedness features (lobby cams/key fobs, earthquake resilience, fire resistance, AC, Heat pump options, solar panel options, floor drainage in bathrooms, etc). If people had an affordable way to get decent sized ‘new’ units with modern amenities, it’d likely go a long way to improving the overall quality of life of many Canadians… so even if I’m skeptical Carney’ll get us there, I’m still going to be cautiously optimistic as he seems to be aiming in that direction, even if his approach is a bit heavy in leaning on the private sector to fill this gap
Ive seen similar stuff for sale in ontario and i think they’re shipping them in from an eastern province. They aren’t all eco-friendly but you can often ask for specific things like better glass or installation of a heat pump. They’re often 800-1200 sq ft and can be trailered to a lot. They are often for sale in more rural cottage/hunt camp type areas.
Maybe a better overall plan would be investing in companies that want to build simar stuff locally in each province. Try to provide local producers to make lots of em and encourage municipalities to be open to backyard suites and more lot splitting to plop them down faster.
Well, the noise he’s making doesn’t rule out having a fab site in each province, or a few even. Also, the work they’re describing in terms of streamlining the bureaucratic side, would likely be working towards the backyard suite option etc. He explicitly mentions working towards sorting out municipal roadblocks, if I remember right? The real question mark for me is what price point propping up the industry with gov investment will bring overall – like right now, many of the ‘decent’ sized prefabs I’ve seen start at like $200-300k. That, ontop of the really high land cost in the metropolitan areas, means its likely still outside the reach for most locals working local jobs. You’d either need to use inherited land and redevelop it, redevelop it for higher density, and/or build outside the major metropolitan areas (it’d be interesting to see if they got housing back down to reasonable levels in many of the small-medium sized towns/cities, if we’d see a migration of people… I’d be in favour of that, just not sure how it’d play out).
Like personally, I have a parent who’s likely to move into a home soon, potentially selling his property in the lower mainland. If there were an “easy” option to instead redevelop that property (cause the house is ancient/not great), and drop down a few modular units for the main resident + 1 or 2 renters, I’d happily drop some money on that, prolly be able to convince my siblings to kick in too as the combo of main property + renters would eventually be some passive income to pay down any loan required to finish it off even quicker. I think that’s the sort of ‘shift’ that Carney’s approach would generally encourage, or that they want to try and encourage, as it opens up additional housing space. The question is whether they can get it to a price point that it makes sense to invest in it, especially as many people are fairly tapped in terms of financing these days it seems.
It’s trickle down housing affordability… I’m sure it’ll work this time!
Kidding aside though, I’m personally a bit curious to see how it works out – I’m cautiously optimistic simply because it is, ultimately, a different sounding approach than anything I’ve seen in my few decades of voting. Personally, I’d love the idea of getting a customised eco-friendly sustainability oriented pre-fab home that I could plop down on some land somewhere for a reasonable price – I’d likely trade in my vancouver condo for it if I could at this point.
Like even the idea of having the opportunity to have a say in the design of your home, would be a huge improvement to the current setup for home owners, especially those in Strata. Like older buildings are often a bit more affordable upfront, with higher maintenance costs due to the age. They’re also often way behind in terms of general amenities (shared laundry is still a thing, in a $600k+ vancouver condo building!), and security/climate preparedness features (lobby cams/key fobs, earthquake resilience, fire resistance, AC, Heat pump options, solar panel options, floor drainage in bathrooms, etc). If people had an affordable way to get decent sized ‘new’ units with modern amenities, it’d likely go a long way to improving the overall quality of life of many Canadians… so even if I’m skeptical Carney’ll get us there, I’m still going to be cautiously optimistic as he seems to be aiming in that direction, even if his approach is a bit heavy in leaning on the private sector to fill this gap
Ive seen similar stuff for sale in ontario and i think they’re shipping them in from an eastern province. They aren’t all eco-friendly but you can often ask for specific things like better glass or installation of a heat pump. They’re often 800-1200 sq ft and can be trailered to a lot. They are often for sale in more rural cottage/hunt camp type areas.
Maybe a better overall plan would be investing in companies that want to build simar stuff locally in each province. Try to provide local producers to make lots of em and encourage municipalities to be open to backyard suites and more lot splitting to plop them down faster.
Well, the noise he’s making doesn’t rule out having a fab site in each province, or a few even. Also, the work they’re describing in terms of streamlining the bureaucratic side, would likely be working towards the backyard suite option etc. He explicitly mentions working towards sorting out municipal roadblocks, if I remember right? The real question mark for me is what price point propping up the industry with gov investment will bring overall – like right now, many of the ‘decent’ sized prefabs I’ve seen start at like $200-300k. That, ontop of the really high land cost in the metropolitan areas, means its likely still outside the reach for most locals working local jobs. You’d either need to use inherited land and redevelop it, redevelop it for higher density, and/or build outside the major metropolitan areas (it’d be interesting to see if they got housing back down to reasonable levels in many of the small-medium sized towns/cities, if we’d see a migration of people… I’d be in favour of that, just not sure how it’d play out).
Like personally, I have a parent who’s likely to move into a home soon, potentially selling his property in the lower mainland. If there were an “easy” option to instead redevelop that property (cause the house is ancient/not great), and drop down a few modular units for the main resident + 1 or 2 renters, I’d happily drop some money on that, prolly be able to convince my siblings to kick in too as the combo of main property + renters would eventually be some passive income to pay down any loan required to finish it off even quicker. I think that’s the sort of ‘shift’ that Carney’s approach would generally encourage, or that they want to try and encourage, as it opens up additional housing space. The question is whether they can get it to a price point that it makes sense to invest in it, especially as many people are fairly tapped in terms of financing these days it seems.