Michael Smith’s Post

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒, 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝟏𝟗.𝟑% 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑. Single-family homes saw the greatest decline, with permits falling by 26.6%. However, perhaps more worryingly, multi-family homes also saw a decline of 19.6%. As this segment plays an important role in addressing the country's housing shortage, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐥. #Housing #BuildingPermits #HousingPolicy #HousingCrisis

Exploring Solutions to the UK's Housing Crisis: The Role of Residential Construction 🛠️🏡 The UK's housing crisis is deepening, with the dream of homeownership slipping away for many. Our latest blog post, "Tackling the Housing Crisis: The Role of Residential Construction in the UK," offers a glimmer of hope in this challenging landscape. We delve into how the construction of new residential projects is crucial for addressing the home shortage and making affordable housing more accessible. With a stark need for 340,000 homes to be built annually until 2031, the post highlights the efforts to meet this demand through innovative construction methods and the redevelopment of brownfield sites. The government's commitment to affordable housing is underscored, alongside the challenges faced by the industry, including supply chain disruptions and labour shortages. Yet, with modern construction techniques and policy support, there's a pathway to overcoming these hurdles. This post is not just an analysis; it's a call to action for building communities and transforming lives through increased home availability. Join us in discussing how we can make a difference in the UK's housing landscape. #UKHousingCrisis #residentialconstruction #affordablehousing #buildingthefuture #blog https://lnkd.in/ew6V_uNh

The NSW State Government is working to address the housing supply and affordability crisis in Australia. It aims to construct 1.2 million new, well-located homes over five years starting mid-2024, facilitated by a mix of reforms and funding. The State Government has made significant commitments in the NHA Implementation Schedule and is already utilising several levers to address the commitments made. TOD SEPP is one of the critical pieces of the State Government’s reform agenda. It facilitates residential flat buildings up to 22 metres high with a maximum FSR of 2.5:1 on residential land and employment lands and shop-top housing development of up to 24 metres high with a maximum FSR of 2.5:1 on employment land. The lands benefitting from the provisions will be identified on the Transport Oriented Development Sites Map. They will generally be situated within 400 metres of a railway or metro station in selected local government areas. The State Government has projected that the state-led rezonings and TOD SEPP will result in 185,800 new homes over 15 years.

According to a recent report by the RCCAO, Burlington has the lowest home-building rate in Ontario, constructing just 0.15 homes per 1,000 residents annually. This is a critical issue that highlights the urgent need for policy changes to address restrictive zoning laws, streamline approval processes, and make more land available for development. As we continue to navigate the housing crisis, it's essential to focus on creating sustainable solutions that will increase housing supply and affordability. Read more about the report and the steps needed to improve the situation. https://buff.ly/45y35Oo

20% increase in housing starts in Greater Victoria (1,572) from January to May 2024 vs the same period last year (1,312). Yet a 92% decline in City of Victoria housing starts with only 20 units vs 247 last year. https://lnkd.in/gvFn7SZA

The new minor dwelling (AKA granny flat) proposal is really fascinating! https://lnkd.in/gBYunK_x Most local councils already permit minor dwellings on most rural and residential lots, so that aspect of the proposal won't change much for most areas, though I do appreciate the fact that it will be consistent nationwide. It's unclear how this will affect regions that already permit larger minor dwellings (Auckland at 65m2 and Christchurch at 85m2). The removal of building consents (or specifically, the admin fees around it) will have a tremendous impact on the cost of building minor dwellings. I've just recently gotten consent for a sub 60m2 dwelling in the Western Bay of Plenty and the fees included are over $10,000 dollars. On a build that was only targeting $150,000, the savings for me will be pretty significant. But, the impact of the removal of the consent documents themselves is something I'm not clear on just yet - How will insurers approach these builds? How will banks feel about financing something un-consented? I think the requirement that all builds must follow the building code gives us a significant safety margin, but we will just have to wait and see.

Clearly David Eby's previous experience as housing minister, and the obvious focus on housing during his tenure as Premier (the Eby government has introduced more pro-housing regulation and substantive housing supply initiatives over the last 22 months than all preceding governments over the past 10+ years) is paying dividends in the form of a detailed, thoughtful, multi-pronged housing platform during this election campaign. A pre-fab home construction strategy is an absolutely necessary part of any effective multi-pronged strategy to address the structural housing shortage. However, having researched the industry, conducted underwriting to invest in (or even acquiring) these types of businesses, it is fairly clear that presently, full scale modular is unlikely to work in the Canadian market due to inherent challenges related to the lack of sufficient scale. That said, there are currently prefab businesses that are factory building certain component of parts of the total construction build successfully and profitably in Canada, and can offer significant improvements in efficiency and cost savings. Think about it. Without this type of pre-fab home construction element, even if there were millions of new home projects already zoned and permitted, and sufficient financing lined up TODAY, there would be insufficient labour to build everything with traditional construction methods in a timely manner, which would lead to a huge construction bottle neck IMMEDIATELY. Global News: Eby says NDP would fast-track pre-fabricated homes to ease housing crisis British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby says his government would fast-track factory-built homes as part of its strategy to ease the province’s housing crisis. At an election campaign stop on Vancouver Island, Eby says pre-built homes cut waste, reduce emissions, and the advances in the industry mean the homes are “beautiful and high-quality.” A statement issued by the NDP says its government would work with the industry, municipalities and First Nations to create a provincewide framework so builders know what’s required in every community. It says there would also be a pre-approved set of construction designs to reduce the permitting process, and it would also work with the industry to develop the skills training needed to support pre-fabricated home construction. It says Scandinavian countries have embraced factory-built homes, which “offer an alternative to the much slower, more costly process of building on-site.” The statement says legislation passed by the NDP government last year was a “game changer” for the factory-built home construction industry in the province, where there are currently 10 certified manufacturing plants. “By growing B.C.’s own factory-built home construction industry, everyone from multi-generational families to municipalities will be able to quickly build single homes, duplexes and triplexes on land they already own,” Eby says.

20% increase in housing starts in Greater Victoria (1,572) from January to May 2024 vs the same period last year (1,312). Yet a 92% decline in City of Victoria housing starts with only 20 units vs 247 last year. https://lnkd.in/gsrv-sYv

There was a big win in parliament this week for the Federal Government's Help to Buy Scheme & legislation being passed to support tax incentives for BTR developments. It's important to recognise though that our affordability & housing supply challenges need to be a multi solution approach. 'The Missing Middle: The Greatest Opportunity for Medium-Density Development’, by CoreLogic Australia & Archistar.ai lifts the lid on a huge opportunity within our capital cities. Often people identify strata high density high-res development, but medium density is potentially the greatest opportunity that exists. A few key takeaways 👇 ✅ 1.3 Million potential sites across our capital cities could provide 3 Million new dwellings. ✅ Average of 2.5 units per site ✅ 500,000 or 16% are low complexity sites ✅ 57% are within 2km of an existing train station Tim Lawless CoreLogic's research Director rightly pointed out "Importantly, this analysis isn't identifying or recommending high-rise apartments as a solution to the housing crisis. It identifies opportunities for low-rise strata units that would typically take the form of townhouses, duplexes or triplexes." Read the full article below 👇 where you can also access the full report. #housing #strataliving #residentialrealestate #capitalcities Stephen Thompson Barrie Q. Sarah Edwards Tim McKibbin Caitlin Ellis Tom Coad Eliza Owen Michael Buckland Dr. Benjamin Coorey

A rezoning blitz is needed to radically move the dial on the current housing crisis. The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has called on governments to undergo an extensive program of land rezoning across major cities and towns, to allow medium and high-density development in the vicinity of infrastructure and services. BCA Chief Executive Bran Black said zoning reforms were imperative to address housing supply. “As it stands, based on current construction rates, Australia will not be able to meet the targeted 1.2 million new dwellings under the National Housing Accord over the next five years,” Mr Black said. He said ABS data for dwelling completions over the 2023-24 financial year showed around 176,000 new dwellings built, falling around 64,000 homes short of what would be needed each year going forward. “We need state and territory governments to unlock more land for more homes in cities and towns across Australia so we can fix this supply crisis.” Mr Black said there was also a need for a transparent process for home builders to put forward proposals to boost housing supply, through rezoning, managed by state government and consolidated zoning types that were broad and consistent across entire states, providing clarity for home builders. “These changes need to allow for greater density and height near good transport services, while at the same time protecting the quality of life, green space and heritage of an area.” “Put simply, we need to build enough homes where people want to live, so until we fix that problem, it will be very hard to hit our housing targets. Building a home in the right place is as important as building it at all.” Mr Black said that across the Tasman in New Zealand, Auckland was an excellent example of how rezoning changes have been successful in improving supply and ultimately lowering price pressures. “In 2016, Auckland rezoned about three quarters of residential land, and a massive increase in home building followed. “They’ve now shared a report showing that this has contained the cost of housing in the long run, approving affordability, with rents at least 26 per cent below what they would have been without the rezoning, and a stabilisation of long-term dwelling prices” Mr Black said. https://lnkd.in/gqDHrQqw #housing #property #zoning Sign-up to the free biweekly Newsreel newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gDGxznVv #newsreel