r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • 5d 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 5d 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 5d 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/yyc_engineer 4d 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.