Last week Rob Ford made an announcement that he was going to build 1600 square foot homes across the province for less than $500,000 with even finished basements. It was a brash promise in the land of the golden horseshoe where the average home now sells for just over $1 million. But as he said in trying to convince the crowd that he was tackling the tricky job of building affordable homes for first time buyers, “you can’t buy a home anywhere in Ontario for $500,000.” Obviously he has not travelled to Northwestern Ontario recently nor consulted real estate prices when he last visited Fort Frances.
But his claim is not unreasonable. When I researched the price of factory prefabricated homes against the cost of stick built homes, the numbers favored a well built factory home for less than $500,000 with a basement and lot purchase. Depending on how one would like their home finished the cost of the home can rise from $180 per square foot to almost $500 per square foot.
The assembling and transporting of the home and using cranes to put each module in place can run to $20,000.
But to make this happen, developers will have to acquire subdivisions and build the homes on spec trying to pre-sell homes in advance. Factories will need to be built to manufacture these homes. The alternative will be for the province, cities and towns to get into the land development business and actually build new homes for first time home owners.
The housing shortage is a worry to all the political parties, whether it is municipal, provincial or federal. All are looking for quick solutions, but none have put together a plan for land development, subdivisions and building homes, rental units or condos. All parties can talk the talk about the housing shortage, but no one has a solution. Perhaps in the coming weeks the Ontario Ford Government will announce the details of creating homes in Ontario for under $500,000. I look forward to his plans.
