Modular housing was a hit in Sweden but America declined, how will Canada do?
Like Sweden, Japan and America, Canada will start experimenting with a large -scale factory -made housing next year – and it has a lot of lessons to learn from countries where the industry has already matured.
Build Canada Holmes, the federal government’s newly launched homebuilding agency, aims to fund the construction of 4,000 modular houses on federal land across the country from next year. According to Ottawa’s announcement, the public -private project – is currently limited to six cities – may eventually build 45,000 homes.
According to Canada Mortege and Housing Corporation, it is a small part of 4.8 million houses Will need to make The country has to restore housing strength by 2030, but the federal government hopes that the pre -made homes will play an important role in reducing housing crisis.
Canada’s modular housing industry is relatively newborn compared to other countries around the world, where factory -made houses – which are considered rapid, cost -effective and more durable than traditional construction methods – are rapidly increasing market share.
Most of the houses in Sweden are manufactured from pre -made elements. Japan has its own prefab industry expected According to market research, by 2030 it will cost more than US $ 23 billion. And densely populated Singapore Is home To about 1,000 apartments of huge modular buildings.
Housing experts and economists talking to CBC News say that for every success story, any other country has failed to increase modular housing to meet the needs of affordable housing. With its unique set of housing challenges, Canada has to learn a lot from the achievements and mistakes of its peers.
Lessons from all over the world
“I would say building culture in Canada, and in North America, mostly related to construction in North America,” said Carlo Caron, Professor of Environmental Design at the University of Quebec in Montreal at Montreal. Carlo Cargoon said, who has done extensive research at prefabricated housing.
In contrast, there is a long history of modular housing in Japan that is partially associated with the country’s high earthquake risk, designed to change its pieces easily, he said. And Sweden’s prefabricated housing industry existed since the 1940s, now the region is highly standardized and coordinated in supply chains.
Ontario’s housing crisis has been an ongoing issue over the years, and some experts say that the modular housing may play an important role in solving the problem. Prefuned buildings are made in factories and gathered on the site. Ali Chiasson of CBC has much more.
When it comes to design and execution, the two countries work as a type of North Star for prefab builders around the world including Canada.
“We have also seen Sweden for their technology and automation, their manufacturing techniques and other countries such as Japan,” said Leslie Harstin, the strategic partnership manager of the Toronto company Assembly Corps, said Leslie Harstin, which designs and constructed prefabricated wooden buildings.
The assembly has recently bought equipment from the world leading Swedish firm Lindbax at the modular building, and has enlisted the company’s help to build a new factory in Toronto.
Researching on how and why other countries with successful modular housing industries built their territory, Harstin said that most of the affordable housing had “a lot of demand,” or housing that was necessary to support the growth in population growth, such as Baby Boom after the Sweden war.
Cost of living9:07How much is the prefab?
To help resolve the housing crisis, the new federal government is promising $ 25 billion loans to promote the pre -built house construction industry. But making houses in factories and assembleing them on the site is an idea that has been going on for decades. Jennifer Keen discovered why this time it could be different.
He said, “The federal government is recognizing that the level is needed, and to make the housing on the limit and scale, something will have to be started rapidly about which we are talking about.”
Nevertheless, for every success story, there is another example in which the national modular housing strategy failed to move forward. The United States developed a program called Operation Breakthrough in the late 1960s, which was the brainchild of the Housing and Urban Development Department that eventually failed.
The program was Means to improve Demonstrating the value of housing strength and prefabricated housing for low -income families after the population surge after the war. But it failed to scale. Some projects were struggling with costs and could not produce housing that are really economical.
Recently, start-up companies promising to revolutionize the housing industry in the US and Britain market have applied for bankruptcy, citing several reasons-from delayed delayed delays to over-regulations to this particular style of housing.
“In areas where it has failed, I think it is always associated with this idea of ​​poor design. And we will have to avoid another era of cookie-cutter design that are absolutely identical and boxy and no one really wants to live in,” Carbon said.
‘This is not a panacea cure’
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Kiwibuilt Program – was launched in 2018 to respond to the demand of home buyers for the first time – its construction target was very less and missed many of its deadlines, by the end of 2024, only 2,300 units were constructed out of the estimated 100,000 units by the end of 2024. The program ended in October.
Randel Bartlett, Deputy Economist of Desjardins, said, “I think Kiwibiland provides a warning story that it is no panacea – modular house – not to solve all our housing strength problems.”
Bartelt said, modular home can be more efficient and it is currently being used in some aspects of home building.
But in the case of New Zealand, the program was “ever able to build housing until the scale of ambitious goals set for itself – in fact, a fraction of the original ambitious goals.” He said, there were some issues regarding the quality of housing and not necessarily a demand for modular construction.
Builds coming out of Canada Holmes will help the low -income families who require affordable housing.
BMO’s Chief Economist Douglas Porter warned, “You just have to be careful that the government does not become too rigid,” this can discourage new investment in the housing sector.
Indeed, Canada’s modular housing industry will have to face its unique challenges. The size of the country will make the transport of large units up to long distance more difficult, and inter -convenable trade obstacles – they have to reduce them A task is in progress – Will contribute to time and cost.
The site of Montreal’s quota-dase-dase-neotre-de-de-de-same-de-grace boro consists of 27 rooms with a support services round the clock. The goal of this project is to take steps towards permanent houses for the weak.
Brian Docket, Associate Professor of School of Planning at Waterloo University, said, “The build Canada (Holmes) is already present in various examples across the country.”
Existing prefabricated housing projects are available across Canada Recent project It aims to provide housing to the newly constructed people, for the homeless population in Montreal. public housing Project for families in Rural Nannavut. But there have been some initiatives Had to face shock Local level.
“If we can do thousands of non -markets and really affordable housing development or units across the country, we can have this parallel system of housing that is actually responding to residential needs – not only the most profitable.”