Canada has launched a new federal agency to build affordable housing, amid a major housing shortfall in the country.
Build Canada Homes has been granted an initial C$13 billion (A$14.14 billion) to build 4,000 houses on federal land in six sites across the country. This will include the capacity for a further 45,000 houses.
“Canada’s new government is relentlessly focused on bringing down housing costs. Central to that mission is rapidly scaling up the supply of homes,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“Build Canada Homes will transform the way government works with the private sector to build. We will create an entirely new housing industry using Canadian technology, Canadian workers, and Canadian resources – and give builders the tools they need to build more, build sustainably, and build at scale.”
The agency’s first six building sites will be in Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec’s Longueuil, and Nova Scotia’s Dartmouth. Toronto is set to report its lowest annual housing starts in around three decades this year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The agency will spend $1 billion to build transitional housing for people who are homeless. It will also build another 700 public housing units in partnership with Nunavut’s public housing body.
Build Canada Homes will launch a $1.5 billion Rental Protection Fund, which will help the community housing sector acquire at-risk apartment buildings.
Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) projected last month that the country would need to build 3.2 million new homes in the next 10 years to eliminate the housing shortfall, or an additional 65,000 homes per year.
Net housing completions will remain high for the next three years before declining to historical average levels due to lower immigration, the PBO report said.
