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More housing, faster — and with less guesswork! 🏘️

CMHC’s new Housing Design Catalogue is a step forward in making gentle density housing easier to build across Canada.

This free resource features ready-to-go designs for row-houses, fourplexes, sixplexes, and accessory dwelling units—designed to work in different regions across the country. This information offers a head start for homeowners, builders and municipalities in their planning processes.

Why does this matter?
✅ It can help reduce design costs and speed up construction.
✅ It supports smaller builders and homeowner-developers who might not have easy access to design expertise.
✅ It helps communities add gentle density in ways that fit existing neighbourhoods.

The full architectural packages will be available this spring—and we’ll be keeping a close eye on how this can support projects right here in BC.

Check out the Catalogue today!

Télécharger (PDF)

Outils pratiques pour les communautés locales

Vous songez à offrir davantage d’options de logement à votre communauté ? Les Considérations réglementaires relatives à la densification douce – élaborées par Small Housing et la SCHL – est votre feuille de route pour y parvenir.

Cette ressource présente l’histoire de l’habitat à densification douce et propose des mesures aux communautés locales, aux urbanistes, aux élus et aux défenseurs du logement. Qu’il s’agisse d’entamer la conversation ou d’affiner les politiques, ce guide offre des conseils clairs et pratiques pour aider à façonner des quartiers plus inclusifs et plus agréables à vivre.

Qu’y a-t-il à l’intérieur ?

Qu’est-ce que la densification douce ? Découvrez comment les communautés définissent et mettent en œuvre ce type d’habitation à petite taille.
Stratégies d’engagement communautaire – Obtenez des outils pour entamer des conversations productives et répondre à des préoccupations communes.
Plan de travail étape par étape – Suivez une approche structurée pour évaluer les besoins en logement et planifier une densification douce.
Modèles de statuts et meilleures pratiques – Découvrez des exemples et des modèles de politiques pour simplifier votre processus.
Ressources supplémentaires et études de cas – Découvrez comment différentes municipalités font de la densification douce une réalité.

Pourquoi ce guide ?

Pratique et actionnable – Conçue pour aider les communautés locales à mettre en œuvre le changement dès maintenant.
Centré sur la communauté – Il s’agit de rendre le logement plus accessible sans perturber le caractère du quartier.
Facile à utiliser – Un format structuré, étape par étape, vous permet de vous y plonger à n’importe quel stade de votre parcours..

Prêt à passer à l’étape suivante ?

Téléchargez le guide pour commencer à façonner l’avenir de votre communauté dès aujourd’hui !

Scaling Up Modular Housing: A Blueprint for Success

The School of Cities, University of Toronto, has published a comprehensive report on the future of modular housing in Canada. This in-depth analysis explores how modular construction can be scaled up to address housing needs, with a particular focus on overcoming barriers through stronger collaboration between developers, manufacturers, and construction companies.

The report is divided into four key sections:

Overview – Learn about modular construction methods, where factory-produced components are assembled on-site, offering adaptable, efficient solutions for diverse environments.
Barriers and Enablers – Discover the challenges that limit modular housing adoption, from project-level constraints to industry-wide hurdles, and explore actionable solutions tailored to Canada’s housing landscape.
Case Studies – Explore real-world examples showcasing how communities overcame obstacles to deliver successful modular housing projects.
Recommendations – Gain insights into strategies for scaling modular housing, including organizational changes, industry collaboration, and policy advocacy.

Unlock the potential of modular housing to transform Canada’s housing market. Dive into actionable strategies, real-life examples, and expert recommendations that pave the way for scalable, sustainable solutions.

Read the full report now to explore how modular housing can reshape housing affordability and innovation.

Explore how cities across Canada are embracing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) with the School of Cities, University of Toronto’s interactive ADU Tracker. Dive into charts and interactive maps that reveal the take-up of detached and attached ADUs in 16 major urban centres, alongside summaries of municipal and provincial policies shaping this housing innovation.

With federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) investments boosting housing supply to address population growth and affordability, this tool offers insights into ADU trends, permitting data from 2014–2023, and policy analysis. From Toronto to Calgary, see how ADUs are shaping the future of housing—and learn how your city can do the same.

Developed by Ahmad Al-Musa, Priya Perwani, Muhammad Khalis Bin Samion, & Jeff Allen.

Unlocking Alberta’s Middle Housing Potential

In partnership with the Canadian Urban Institute and mddl, and funded by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, this report dives into the transformative possibilities of middle housing in Alberta. From innovative strategies to overcome barriers to scaling production, to practical solutions for unlocking gentle density across the province, this collaboration is a must-read for anyone passionate about housing solutions. Curious about how middle housing could reshape Alberta’s communities?

Click through to discover the findings and recommendations shaping the future of attainable, diverse housing options!

Launched by the Community Planning Collaborative (CPC) in August 2024, the California ADU Plans Gallery is an innovative web application showcasing an array of prefabricated and traditional site-built designs. While tailored to U.S. jurisdictions, this gallery offers valuable insights for Canadian audiences, particularly for municipalities and planners exploring accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a way to expand housing supply. Examples such as prefabricated designs and statewide pre-approvals can serve as inspiration for Canadian local governments considering ADU implementation in their communities. The site also includes a demo, offering local governments a preview for launching a similar custom tool.

“The California ADU Plans Gallery gives local governments a place to demonstrate what’s possible for their communities while providing a publicly accessible database of prefabricated plans approved for use statewide,” said David Driskell, principal at CPC, in a press release announcing the launch. “Digital tools like the ADU Plans Gallery help local governments assist their residents through the challenging ADU process and expand housing supply in their existing neighborhoods.”

Explore the California ADU Plans Gallery here.

Download (PDF)

“Throughout the United States, the housing deficit has created an affordability crisis. The underbuilding of new homes following the recession coupled with restrictive policies has led to historically low housing supply–and the high costs that come with it. To highlight the solutions that will address this crisis, Zillow and the Casita Coalition have assembled a playbook of strategies to “Build the Middle” by expanding affordable, middle-scale housing options.”

Our friends at Zillow & the Casita Coalition have published a useful playbook that highlights innovations in the field of gentle density housing, collating them in an actionable framework template.

Download the Playbook.

Our friends at Happy Cities have crafted a one-of-a-kind toolkit designed to enhance social well-being through thoughtful multi-unit housing designs, supporting diverse individuals of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, household sizes, and incomes. As they describe it:

“Over 2023 and 2024, Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, and researchers from Simon Fraser University worked together with five local municipalities and one First Nation to co-create new policies to encourage sociable multi-unit housing design.

“Building on the learnings from this project—and nearly a decade of prior research—Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective have published a new design toolkit of evidence-based strategies to nurture social wellbeing multi-unit housing. The design principles and actions equip policy makers, planners, designers, and community members to build and advocate for more socially connected, inclusive communities, drawing on long-term research and engagement with residents and housing industry actors—including non-profit housing providers, city planners, architects, and market developers.

“In the face of growing challenges—including an acute housing affordability crisis, extreme weather, social isolation, and an aging population—our social connections are one of the strongest resources we have to chart a more sustainable, resilient path forward.”

Download the Toolkit.

Download (PDF)

Discover the New Standardized Designs for Gentle Density Homes in B.C.

In September 2024, the Government of British Columbia released a series of free, standardized designs to help facilitate the development of gentle density homes. These designs are versatile, using a “building blocks” approach that allows for customization. You can mix and match elements to add features like garages or additional bedrooms and stack up to three storeys high. The collection includes a range of options from duplexes and triplexes to quadplexes and townhouses, with various roof shapes and exterior finishes to blend seamlessly into existing neighborhoods. There are also designs for accessory dwelling units, like laneway homes, and adaptable cottages perfect for aging in place.

All designs comply with the 2024 B.C. Building Code and can be tailored to fit different lot sizes and site conditions across the province. The design files are available for free download and have been compiled into a convenient catalogue for easy browsing.

These standardized designs are expected to save time and reduce costs for local governments and builders, speeding up approvals and construction. This initiative is a key component of the Homes for People action plan, aimed at unlocking more homes faster by creating favorable conditions for rapid housing development.

Click the image to view the designs and access the full document.

Download (PDF)

As housing affordability challenges escalate, an increasing number of middle-income renter households are facing cost burdens. In response, states and localities are implementing policies to address these needs. While these programs aim to expand affordable housing in high-cost areas, they face criticism for potentially diverting resources from lower-income households.

This new research paper from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies explores these middle-income housing initiatives, evaluating their goals, benefits, and the tradeoffs involved. By examining eleven state and local programs, the paper finds these initiatives are becoming more common across diverse regions, primarily focusing on expanding housing supply for the “workforce” based on area median income.

However, these programs often fall short of assisting the most cost-burdened renters, who are predominantly lower-income. Moreover, the demographic disparity, with middle-income renters being disproportionately white, raises concerns about reinforcing racial inequities.

The paper recommend designing middle-income housing programs that do not detract from resources for the lowest-income households, operate in areas where the market fails to serve middle-income renters, and provide additional benefits to lower-income communities. Read the full report to understand the complexities and potential solutions in addressing middle-income housing needs.

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