Low-carbon, resilient homes improve housing affordability
Earlier this year, our Blueprint for More and Better Housing made 140 recommendations for how all levels of government can collaborate on building 5.8 million new homes that are affordable, resilient, and low-carbon.
A new report released in November 2024 by the PLACE Centre, makes plain that resilient and low-carbon homes are in fact prerequisites for family-friendly affordability. The report spotlights four pathways for how the recommendations in the Blueprint for More and Better Housing advance lower-cost housing.
Four Pathways to Housing Affordability
- Making home ownership and rent more affordable by cutting building costs.
- Keeping property taxes and transportation costs in check by allowing more building in convenient locations.
- Lowering insurance and maintenance costs by building sturdier homes in safer areas.
- Reducing utility bills with energy-efficient homes.
The new report analyzes specific recommendations from the Blueprint, finding that they give governments the tools to drive down five key shelter costs, which make up over 40% of middle-class household budgets.
- Rent and the price of new homes (16.5% of the average household budget)
- Property taxes (3.4%)
- Transportation costs (16.3%)
- Insurance and maintenance bills (3.0%)
- Utility bills (3.7%)
Of note, the report also illustrates that addressing these issues does not necessarily require governments to do more. In fact, many can be resolved by eliminating poorly designed regulations and taxes.
Canadians are hungry for solutions to the affordability crisis that can also address climate-change concerns. But we’re not going to achieve our housing goals by continuing to build homes the same way we’ve built them for the past one hundred years. This report shows governments how they can create public policy reforms that enhance affordability for middle-class Canadians while creating neighbourhoods that are lower-carbon and more resilient to extreme weather.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Eric Campbell
Task Force for Housing & Climate
eric@cleaneconomyfund.ca
You can also hear more on The Missing Middle podcast.