Will Canada Become the Housing Factory to the World?

The nation’s new prime minister is pushing to make it so with a focus on expanding its manufactured housing industry.

Shortages in housing – especially residential housing – seem to be a fact of life throughout the modern world, but it’s especially true in North America where high building costs have resulted in equally as high demand that is largely not being met.

However, newly reelected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made affordable housing one of his platform foundations and is now working on plans to turn those promises into reality, according to a report from Bloomberg News. If enacted, it would make the Canadian government both the financier and customer for new manufacturing housing. “The hope is that bulk orders would provide companies with a more predictable demand base that can keep a factory going through a downturn and justify expansion,” Bloomberg reported. “Carney plans to make C$25 billion (about $18 billion US dollars at current exchange rates) in financing available for such factories, and also pledged C$1 billion (about $772 million US dollars) in equity investment.

“It amounts to a promise to help the industry achieve economies of scale that could lower home prices nationwide, while creating manufacturing jobs that could replace some of the ones being lost due to US tariffs.”

Carney’s plan “could create an export industry and create companies that can compete on a global scale,” Mike Moffatt, an economist who studies housing issues at Ontario’s Western University, told Bloomberg. “If the United States ever gets its act together, perhaps we can start exporting these products down there.”

Added Moffatt on Carney’s Liberal party agenda, “(They) seem to be looking at those barriers that have prevented this industry from taking off in North America. If you can start to build those economies of scale, that should start to lower prices.”

Of course, while manufactured housing has been around for decades without the widespread acceptance that some had forecast and has only been successful in a few nations like Sweden and Japan, Canada has a distinct advantage over other countries that might consider the practice: it has plenty of wood.

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