A roadmap for addressing Canada’s housing crisis

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Housing is not just a national crisis; it’s a deeply personal one for Canadians. Behind every proposed solution lies a desire for stability and a place to call home, whether it’s a young family seeking their first house or a senior looking to downsize while maintaining independence.

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Because realtors work with Canadians from all walks of life and individual life situations, they have a unique vantage point to the challenges and needs of Canada’s varied housing markets. With their insight and expertise, they understand and advocate for meaningful and actionable recommendations that can make a significant difference in addressing the housing crisis. There are three proposals realtors believe will have a real and immediate impact.

First, we won’t be able to tackle our national housing supply shortage using today’s traditional onsite construction practices alone. Rapid construction should be prioritized to help stimulate supply across the entire housing continuum.

One promising path forward is through broader adoption of innovation through offsite construction technologies, such as mass timber, panelization and modular home construction. Not only are these technologies 20 per cent to 50 per cent faster to complete, once manufacturing operating and capital costs are scaled, the per-unit cost for housing could be lower than traditional housing.

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We believe scaling can be stimulated by providing contracts, loans and supports to manufacturers and incentivizing developers and early adopters through funding streams such as the Housing Accelerator Fund and the Homebuilding Technology and Innovation Fund.

Second, while there’s no shortage of goodwill for addressing Canada’s housing challenges, the lack of coordination and collaboration between all levels of government is further exacerbating the crisis. The consequences go beyond individual impacts; they affect the overall economy and social fabric of the country.

Politicians at all levels of government, housing stakeholders, and civil society and Indigenous organizations can’t work in silos and expect cohesive results. We believe establishing a national housing secretariat is the answer to effective housing policy development.

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Addressing our housing crisis requires a permanent mechanism to facilitate a long-term, ongoing, multi-faceted, inclusive and collaborative approach to substantially increase supply. Taking a page from the successful secretariat model of the Federal Secretariat on Early Learning and Childcare, a housing secretariat could provide the framework, support, and resources needed to address affordability challenges, coordinate policy and build the housing supply Canada needs.

A national housing secretariat would be an inclusive, holistic, innovative and coordinated approach to building short-term measures and long-term strategies to address the country’s housing crisis.

Third, when we talk about increasing housing supply across the entire “housing continuum,” we mean all forms of housing, from emergency shelter and community housing to rental accommodation and homeownership.

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Between the announcement two weeks ago by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to remove the GST on newly built homes (that cost less than $1 million) and last year’s announcement from the federal government of an HST/GST exemption for purpose-built rental housing, student housing, long-term rentals for seniors, and co-op housing, there appears to be a clear understanding of the impact provided by removing HST/GST from specific types of homebuilding.

Yet affordable homeownership units provided by non-profits, such as Habitat for Humanity, are still taxed the same as other newly constructed houses, even though they’re meant for lower-income families.

According to Habitat for Humanity, extending HST/GST relief to include affordable ownership housing could build 13 additional homes for every 100 it currently delivers, significantly expanding its capacity to address Canada’s lack of affordable housing. The government could fix this oversight by offering a 100 per cent rebate or an exemption on paying HST/GST on new homes built by organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.

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As Canada’s population grows, demand for housing continues to outpace the rate of new construction and available inventory. The recommendations above aren’t an exclusive roadmap to address the entirety of the housing crisis. They’re not even reflective of the entirety of our work to help bring attention to its many facets. But they are a productive step to ensuring an innovative, inclusive, and coordinated approach. Realtors work every day to help their clients find a place to call home. To help make that future a reality for all Canadians, the time to act on our recommendations is now.

Janice Myers is chief executive of the Canadian Real Estate Association.

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