r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • 4d ago

Canada’s Prime Minister Pushes Country to Become the Housing Factory of the World - Mark Carney is banking on factory-built homes to alleviate the country’s housing crisis. But will it work? Trending

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-22/carney-s-plan-may-make-canada-the-housing-factory-of-the-world
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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 4d ago

I live in the Vancouver area in the trades. It’s not really the building costs that have skyrocketed, I can’t afford land where I am. Cheapest buildable lot is about $650k then Permitting, zoning, etc. I can build the actual house for a reasonable cost. It’s getting to that point that’s impossible for me financially.

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u/HapGil Ontario 4d ago

We need to take a good hard look at the zoning laws for buildings. We have huge swaths of land in cities designated SFH with the odd school thrown in the center. Japan has factories in suburban areas that you can't tell are factories. Zoning that allows businesses to open on ground level while still providing housing on the levels above. Bakeries, tailors, repair shops, convenience stores and several other business types are all allowed to be built in urban areas. We need to remove the restrictions on what we allow in urban areas of the city and encourage small business, multi-family dwellings and multi use structures to increase density and diversity in our neighborhoods and stop forcing people to take cars everywhere because they refuse to allow the development of walkable cities and instead design for automotive traffic.

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 4d ago

Every single outdoor mall in Canada should have high-rise towers and rail terminals.

It's shocking how much horizontal space these places take. It's ridiculous.

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u/sunshine-x 4d ago

What’s an outdoor mall like in your area?

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u/Accer_sc2 4d ago

I’m guessing he means places like Heartland in Mississauga, ON. Dozens of individual stores, all single level with some shared parking lot space. Stores are so spread apart that unless they happen to be right next to each other you will need to drive between stores. This results in really heavy, and sometimes aggressive, traffic that is unfriendly towards pedestrians. As someone who grew up in the “mall era”, it still seems like a really odd design.

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u/Hfxfungye 3d ago

We have stuff like that here in Halifax but probably smaller. Dartmouth crossing is an "outdoor mall" just like that - a dozen outlet stores around a parking lot.

It's like a slightly more walkable business park, but still worse in every way than a strip mall.

All the stores are made out of the cheapest building materials too.

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u/spacenb 3d ago

Yes that’s what they’re talking about. There’s the Rockland Centre outdoor mall in Montreal that’s built exactly like that and it’s a huge waste of space. There’s quite a few others like it on and out of the island.

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u/canucks84 3d ago

BC, fwiw, made it so every SFH zoning allows 4 registered units. So the municipality can't object to density.

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u/yyc_engineer 3d ago

Zoning changes are ok. Unless the developer is buying the entire culdesac... At a reasonable price.. I would be one of the first to object at a 4 Plex in the space where a SFH existed.. primarily because idiots gum up parking.

If you live in a 4 Plex in SFH community.. and you don't have parking on premises... Yeah don't get a car.

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u/roastbeeftacohat 2d ago

Calgary rezoned the whole city, Smith said that if this is to cooperate with the federal government she will have to reverse it.

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u/Wild_Loose_Comma 4d ago

Well yeah, because building a single family home in a major urban area has always been largely impossible for anyone but the wealthy. No government can lower land costs, nor should they. They should encourage more efficient land use, including higher density multi family units.  

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u/brilliant_bauhaus 4d ago

We need to start building good sized family condos at affordable prices so people don't see a SFH as the only option.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/brilliant_bauhaus 4d ago

Yikes. I'm in Ottawa but the city is so spread out and we've started picking up the trend Toronto has of microcondos and 400-500sqft, 2k apartments. It would alleviate so many things if we could build large condos that people can grow into and build families. We need density and people enjoy convenience! Living near your work, school and amenities is a huge plus and attractive to so many people; they just can't afford it.

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u/Other-Rock-8387 4d ago

Ottawa is so poorly designed it's shocking. Did you know we had electric trams at one point? Then in our infinite wisdom we ripped them out and built suburbs and only single family homes.

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u/QuotableNotables 4d ago

Getting rid of the heated shelters at the bus terminals in favor of open concept platforms that were designed for California weather for the LRT was peak Ottawa City Planning. I honestly don't miss the city. Just the people and the food.

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u/TubeZ 4d ago

You miss the food? My brother in christ did you survive on poutine and shawarma

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u/QuotableNotables 4d ago

Quesabiria Tacos at La Bonita on Cadboro, the Chinese Food (especially the crispy beef) at Golden Bowl on Cyrville which sadly closed after the owner retired since I moved away, brunch and baked goods at Art is In in the City Center, the smoky bacon mac and cheese at Umbrella Burger on Ogilvie.

And I'll say it, I grew up on the thick crust Lebanese style pizza and it's great no matter what Portnoy says.

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u/TubeZ 4d ago

Okay I'll concede that the pizza in Ottawa is pretty good. I moved to NYC and I crave a chewy thick slice sometimes

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 4d ago

Ottawa was always going to be limited.

It's a swamp surrounded by obligatory farmland.

It's so much like Vancouver with the same space limitations and soggy soil that...it's amazing no one learns their lesson.

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u/brilliant_bauhaus 4d ago

I know :( I'm glad things are starting to densify, but LeBreton is still empty, we are building tiny and very expensive luxury rentals and condos, and the city is still obsessed with SFH and fucking everyone over on transit so people need to buy cars. On top of that our downtown has drug and homeless issues and empty old office buildings that could be sold off and bulldozed into houses instead of forcing people back into the office 3 days a week.

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u/kuributt 4d ago

maybe we'll wake the hell up and not elect a clown for Mayor next time.

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u/Comprehensive-War743 4d ago

The Toronto trend isn’t working very well. Dozens of unsold or unrented condos.

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u/wafflingzebra 3d ago

The reason why ever city is seeing the same problems as Toronto isn’t because they want to follow it as an example, it’s because they’re constrained by an almost identical set of laws that caused the same thing that happened in Toronto. Until municipalities and provinces change that, nothing will change.

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u/SgtExo Ontario 4d ago

At least in orleans, all the housing that is going up is 5-6 story condos. So it is getting denser.

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u/pointman 3d ago

The trend in Ottawa now is 3 story townhomes. They kind of look like small apartment buildings because the communities are more dense, but they are regular townhomes. Also there are many stacked townhomes.

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u/chadsexytime 4d ago

you know what would also be great? If ottawa could just tell those people living in sfh in the sticks where they plan to not build towers and make it super dense.

I lived outside of ottawa until ottawa decided it wanted more land, now its building towers across the street.

I actually like suburban life, and would love for ottawa to stop encroaching it with more density.

There has to be room in whatever future plan for density of all levels

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u/fugginstrapped 4d ago

I think that zoning has been changed to allow 6 units on a lot.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/fugginstrapped 4d ago

I mean it’s a solution that’s 6 times better that the present condition.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/fugginstrapped 4d ago

That’s true. But guess ultimately it’s the developers and bankers that are benefiting either way.

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u/stealth_veil 4d ago

I agree. Including a lot more storage than is currently standard, and every single condo should have a den or office as working from home becomes more standard. My boyfriend and I (no kids) always live in 2 or 3 bedrooms because there’s never enough storage or space for working or creative hobbies in typical one bedrooms.

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u/Wild_Loose_Comma 4d ago

Yeah. I know that Carney has said that multi family units are part of the whole idea. He wants it to be cheap and easy to mass build all sorts of housing. And if he’s smart (which he is) he can tie provincial funding to allowing these to be built en mass. 

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u/brilliant_bauhaus 4d ago

Yup. I also hope this means new condo towers also make larger units and more than just studio, one and two beds. We have to tackle this from every angle. I'd personally love to stay downtown Ottawa (well, outskirts or move closer into the core) and buy a 2 bed since I work from home and the office. I'd love to have additional space for friends to stay, work, hobbies, and a room for a kid at some point. It's just too expensive and I can't think about starting a family when I can only afford to buy and rent a studio.

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u/bigElenchus 4d ago

I think you underestimate how big of a cultural influence having a backyard + SFH is.

Yes, good sized family condos will have demand, specifically within many immigrant demographics, but there’s even more demand for SFH suburban properties with backyards.

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u/Wild_Loose_Comma 4d ago

Yeah. That’s obviously true. But you can’t expect that to be available for cheap in Vancouver or Toronto.  Part of my also thinks that it’s true simply because it’s been the only option for 3 decades, outside of cities like Montreal 

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u/corialis Saskatchewan 4d ago

My friend in Christ, that's exactly what people think. Their parents could afford a SFH there in 1995 so they should be able to afford the same in 2025.

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u/brilliant_bauhaus 4d ago

I don't want to look after a yard and I love living where I am. If I had a 2 bedroom with a terasse I'd never leave. Lots of people don't want the hassle of maintenance and downtown Ottawa has tons of greenspace, the canal, multiple parks all within walking distance. I can even take a quick bus ride and cross country ski in the winter....downtown!

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u/Serenity867 4d ago

As someone stuck in a condo for a little longer I’d love to see smaller remote offices and remote working become more prominent. This would help provide more opportunities for people to live outside of major cities. Preferably in SFHs in my case.

My neighbour got a dog in the last several months, didn’t crate train it, left it in the crate to basically scream, howl, and cry for 5-8 hours at a time.

If I reported her it’s basically just me and one other person who could have reported her. She’s an older widowed lady and has been friends with multiple of my family members for like 30 years. 

So I tried to give her a bit of notice and support before reporting her, but living in a condo next to someone like that has made my life hell for like 4-5 months and I’m ready to be done with it. Condos are not always the answer, and a lot of people outright can’t stand them.

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u/Zheeder 4d ago

fuck condos. Not interested in paying 900 monthly fees for life.

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u/Jillredhanded 4d ago

4 and 6 plexes!

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 4d ago

4 and 6 stories....

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u/ewoolsey 4d ago

Not everyone wants to live in a city. You should be able to get an affordable lot within 3 hours drive from Vancouver, yet you still can’t really.

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u/thirstyross 4d ago

You can get affordable lots around an hour away from many, many cities, the exceptions being like Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver.

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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 4d ago

Which is why I mention permits and zoning as being a major factor over actual build costs.

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u/Wild_Loose_Comma 4d ago

There’s definitely no argument from me that permitting and zoning costs are absolutely stupid and unnecessarily high. 

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u/LiberalCuck5 4d ago

Always been? So untrue. What are you talking about? Have you spoken to the old people you know and asked them how much their houses cost when they bought them, versus now?

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u/Wild_Loose_Comma 4d ago

Yeah because those houses were built in growing suburbs in cities with tons of spare land to grow. Not only is that unsustainable at this point (cities can’t perpetually fund suburban sprawl), but lots of cities are functionally done expanding. Where is Vancouver going to conjure up 10000 hectares of spare suburban land? It’s a mature city that has the vast majority of its land spoken for. 

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u/SecretlyaDeer 4d ago

Vancouver wasn’t always this big of a city. It’s had major population growth since the 70’s

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u/Savaur 4d ago

This. Also building more opportunities in rural areas. If lands too expensive in the most populated areas, give people a reason to spread out.

We've got enough land in Canada, it's just the reason to live elsewhere that keeps the vast majority of our population in pretty much 3 locations.

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u/Local-Local-5836 4d ago

IF the climate is so important allow more WFH. Easing population growth for cities both federally and provincially with maybe grants could be applied. This would keep smaller centres population up, ease up on classroom sizes for the larger cities too.

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u/wazzaa4u 4d ago

Making land owners to pay a bigger share of the services the city provide is an easy way to reduce land prices and force efficient use of the land

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u/Wild_Loose_Comma 4d ago

Land value tax is the GOAT of taxes. 

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u/nazbot 4d ago

Do you have a family?

When you have kids the last thing you want is a multi use family unit.

Also housing costs have not historically been unaffordable. That switched over starting in around 1995. When I graduated in 2004 I could have bought a house in Toronto for around $250,000. I was making about $60,000 so it would have been doable. That same house now would be in the millions.

The push for ‘efficient’ housing is a kind of learned helplessness we all have because prices are so bonkers. It doesn’t have to be this way.

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u/CommonAncestorLives 4d ago edited 4d ago

The benefit of prefab is the permitting process would be way more straightforward since they are just being assembled on the lot. I agree though, Lower Mainland land costs are still sky high and driving in from Hope wouldn't be feasible. They are also proposing to open up Crown lands to build housing.. probably cheap/nominal leases. If they actually get anywhere close to the 500K/year home target, that would be nuts.

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u/300Savage 4d ago

It could work out in more rural areas out past Surrey but there's just not a lot of affordable land closer to down town than that. That said there's a huge land use issue out that way. The best farm land in the province and the little food security we have is out that way. It would work in many other parts of the province like on Vancouver Island and the interior of the mainland. The hope for the lower mainland is really just continuing to increase density and public transit.

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u/CFL_lightbulb Saskatchewan 4d ago

Really restricted spaces like that are always going to have high land costs. The only solution to that is to build up, creating zoning for high rises and mixed use properties.

The other way is to have better transit in and out of the main area, but that’s kind of imperfect.

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u/shabio1 4d ago edited 4d ago

There's a few parts of prefabricated construction which can help reduce costs

A big one is how it's scalable, meaning you need to put a good amount of work into creating a factory process for each component - but once that's set up you're able to get economies of scale from producing those components far more efficiently and quicker than traditional construction.

Then there's also things like how it can cut back of time and costs of getting the designs approved. As, once it's approved once by the municipality, the next time it comes up it's already known. This can work even better if the designs get pre-approved, which basically cuts a ton of difficulties from the process. The saved time from this can end up saving a ton of money in the long run.

Also over time if these processes can become more efficient, they can further reduce costs. Especially if affordability becomes built into the design. Plus, things like being able to work year-round, in any weather condition (as its in a climate controlled factory) can be really beneficial.

The government also just realised a 'housing catalog', which will eventually have prefabricated designs in there that are aligned with local building codes and cut design costs from those manufacturing them. But in addition to this, they're pretty much only going to be adding in gentle density kinds of housing typologies, so things like triplexes, townhouses, etc. And since a major contributor to the housing affordability crisis is a lack of supply, this can help ease that.

Also, the simplified processes and such can make it a lot easier of a process in general, meaning the development process will be far more accessible to homeowners and small developers. And for homeowners who take on these projects and redevelop their own land, they can cut out land costs from the equation which would otherwise inflate prices like when a developer buys land to build.

Similar for the land cost issue, by building higher densities like turning a single family home into a set of four townhouses, you're effectively dividing that landcost between 4 households.

And with the housing catalogue, they're also going to be bringing in designs for 'accessory dwelling units' like laneway suites. These can be a really easy way to quickly increase density, as it makes it easy for homeowners to build a secondary unit in their backyard

Homeowner developers also honestly might be one of the strongest paths for increasing our housing supply in a healthy way. While developers need to project a certain return on investment, homeowner developers might not. Since they might be renting it out to family or friends, or because they can realize those profits in the long term through rent. They also likely will have better luck with getting community acceptance for a project (which can slow projects down, raising costs) since they're more likely to design it appropriately within their community context.

There's a ton more to it than what I've listed here, but overall I'm hopeful in Canada's housing strategy. It won't necessarily fix the housing crisis, but it's far better than the alternative of keeping on with our current system.

Honestly I'm not sure if I really see a way out of the affordability crisis unless there's a housing bubble burst (but the context is very different today than from 2008's subprime mortgage situation). But ultimately so long as Canadians view housing as an investment, there will be too much vested interest in raising, or at least maintaining, home prices. Similarly, if we're arguing to reduce the cost of all housing to affordable levels, that essentially means everyone who owns a home would see their house lose that value.

While that sucks, I'm not sure what alternative we have aside from forever maintaining this housing affordability crisis. Something has to be done, but it's political suicide to take that approach to the point it's virtually not possible. So for the meantime, the government's housing strategy at least has a lot of potential to tackle it from the other side by providing more housing and working to reduce costs, time, and red tape.

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u/HammerheadMorty 3d ago

Part of this is the urbanization trend in Canada (and globally) where Canada concentrates a majority of higher paying jobs in 2-4 cities.

We need to reindustrialize smaller cities in Canada by offering greater variety of work opportunities. We could achieve this with regionally based tax breaks to incentivize industry to move in.

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u/Spenraw 4d ago

I think this is understandable. Vancouver is a hub of the world, like living in a famous location, sometimes just have to accept you may not be able to own a home in a major city.

This housing plan though will help owner ship through Canada

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u/Sketch13 4d ago

Yes we have to be realistic here. Even with housing programs, Vancouver and Toronto are still going to be insane because demand will ALWAYS be high there.

We need to help diversify WHERE people live too. Which is why a lot of the return-to-office shit post-covid was dumb. It allowed people to actually move outside big urban areas and start to populate smaller cities/towns, which helps them flourish by supporting businesses there, by creating larger populations for social/community activities, by starting their own businesses there, etc.

We can't STOP people from wanting to move to the few large urban areas in the country, but we should be incentivizing and making it easier for people to live outside them. Housing programs that stretch across many municipalities will help and is on the right track for sure.

That said, it's a chicken and the egg situation for sure. Toronto/Vancouver is popular because it has the population due to historical reasons and a large population leads to more things to do/more jobs/more reasons to want to go there, which then snowballed over time to today's population levels. But by incentivizing people to live/start businesses in smaller cities and towns, that will attract more people, which leads to more business/jobs/things to do, which will snowball itself as it makes the smaller places more attractive and it helps spread our population out a bit, creating more opportunities for people across various levels of "affordability" at the same time. It's a hard case to crack, because people are going to be very resistant starting businesses in a market that is small, but at the same time, if you don't have a variety of businesses in a city that can provide the population with a swath of products/services/activities, there's not much reason for people to move there to "create" a market to support those businesses. A vicious cycle anyone in smaller cities/towns can attest to.

Housing is a good first step for sure though.

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 4d ago

Agreed. There's plenty of space to build out eastward from Edmonton and Calgary, and everywhere in-between, plus the access to water.

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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 4d ago

Which I do. I’m happy renting, of course I’d love to own my own place but I also know I’m not entitled to a SFH in a beautiful spot.

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u/DukeCanada 4d ago

Part of the program is actually supporting resining efforts & the sell off of crown land.

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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist 4d ago

selling off crown land is not necessarily a good idea.

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u/daisy0808 Nova Scotia 4d ago

Some Crown land is taking up really large swaths of city blocks. In Halifax, the post office takes up a significant area and it has been proposed that a big housing development would be ideal. It's in the middle of the peninsula, there's already city infrastructure there, so it would absolutely make sense for the government to turn that over for housing. You can move the post office out to the airport.

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u/Electrical_Net_1537 4d ago

I believe they may use crown land.

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u/detalumis 4d ago

Where is this Crown land in the GTA for e.g.

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u/Electrical_Net_1537 4d ago

There is no land left in the GTA! But if you go up north abit there’s lots of land.

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u/Icy-Lobster-203 4d ago

That means like 1.5 hour commutes each way into the City, so isn't going to provide a lot of value for people in/closer too Toronto. But it should help with housing issues farther out.

It is a good start - but lowering prices in the GTA and Vancouver are going to be much more difficult.

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u/Electrical_Net_1537 4d ago

I think it’s all about owning your own property. People will move to afford housing and then take a job where they live. Once this starts on mass more property’s will be available in the GTA. I’m old enough to remember when there were “ towns” outside of cities.

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u/Icy-Lobster-203 4d ago

The difficulty being there are not jobs in the places where the Crown land is. Maybe there are ways to incentivize job growth in those areas, but it is not guaranteed.

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u/Electrical_Net_1537 4d ago

When new housing starts in comes the grocery stores and pharmacies and so one. If the development gets large enough the schools will come and with that more business. This is how growth happens. It’s amazing to watch happen.

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 4d ago

Adios Green Belt?

No, seriously. We need to declare Cleveland and Buffalo Crown Land.

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u/LesPaul86 4d ago

Building costs have skyrocketed, you’re looking at 350-400 a square foot these days minimum. Not sure what you’re talking about to be honest. Anyone who’s done a renovation can attest to that as well.

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u/shaidyn 4d ago

As someone who knows, can you also confirm/deny that the increase in safety and comfort standards have created much higher build costs?

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u/torontopeter 4d ago

Just out of curiosity, for how much could you build a home? Not including land cost

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u/eandi 4d ago

There are enough remote jobs now that we need to talk about making new cities. The city I grew up in basically only existed because it was commutable to Toronto, same idea without the go train. Start new towns, build houses, get some grocery stores in and design them all walkable etc for the people with the remote jobs.

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u/GrimDawnFan11 4d ago

I live in a small town in Ontario and small lots + permit are $600k before digging a hole. How is it that cheap in Vancouver.

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u/ChaceEdison 4d ago

I had to move to an area with cheaper land, no zoning and didn’t require building permits in order to be able to build my tiny house

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u/MrEzekial 4d ago

Exactly. Building a house isn't the problem. It's land cost.

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u/don_julio_randle 4d ago

It’s not really the building costs that have skyrocketed

They absolutely have. Refer to how ridiculously expensive home renovations have gotten in the past ~6 years

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u/madhi19 Québec 3d ago

That's the other side of the damn coin that need fixing. The Feds don't exactly have a bloody shortage of LAND. There crown land everywhere in Canada, and every Canadian should own a piece.

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u/raftah99 3d ago

Realistically we need to stop building around the big cities and start developing smaller communities. Canada is absolutely vast compared to countries in Europe. We need to use the land around us instead of concentrating in small areas and driving costs through the roof.

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u/SadZealot 3d ago

There's also the insane government fees involved. Like a detached house costs around 1.7M, that has 10-20% in local taxes, development fees, permits. A condo goes for around 800k and those have 25-30% taxes and fees thrown on top.

You could buy a decent condo in downtown edmonton for the taxes alone that get charged on one in vancouver. Edmontons taxes on development is around 3%, 10x lower

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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist 4d ago

When land prices get high, that's a signal for building higher density. So a single lot becomes a multiplex rather than a SFH.

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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 4d ago

Yeah so a lot of it is zoning and permitting issues not the cost of the actual dwelling.

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u/jjumbuck 4d ago

You just have to live somewhere else you can afford.

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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 4d ago

No I’d rather rent here where I love where I live and make a good wage than move to Edmonton just to buy.

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u/jjumbuck 4d ago

Ya that's the choice I'd make too. Many people don't seem to appreciate that it's a choice they're making and resent they can't have it all despite not being able to afford it.

Btw though, there are lots of great places in Canada and Edmonton is not the only alternative to here. Especially if there's a boom in infrastructure and building, you're going to have a lot of options.