24 x 7 World News

Housing costs have soared. Are smaller dwellings the answer?

0

For Sonya Mullins, the benefits of thinking small are┬аobvious┬атАФ┬а when it comes to housing

Mullins grew up in Halifax, but spent the bulk of her life in Montreal. Prior to the pandemic, she was thinking about moving back to Nova Scotia. But by the time she seriously began looking, housing prices had jumped so much that a traditional, single-family house was out of her reach.┬а

“I never even considered a mini-home [before],” she said. “But it was an option that I was able to afford.”

Mullins did some┬аresearch and purchased a mini-home in Hubbards┬аwest of Halifax┬аfor $180,000, sight unseen. “I will tell you it is probably the best choice I’ve ever made in my life.”

As housing costs continue to climb in Nova Scotia, officials and service providers hope smaller homes could be part of the solution. The Halifax Regional Municipality┬аrecently voted to get rid of minimum dimensions for single-unit homes, and to eliminate restrictions on shipping container and mobile homes.┬а

It’s part of a shift some hope will help meet the need for housing at the speed and scale that’s required while┬аthe province’s┬аpopulation continues to grow.┬а

Home values, rental costs continue to climb

In Nova Scotia, the huge price increases of the early years of the pandemic have levelled off, but demand continues to outstrip supply.┬а

In December, Atlantic Canada recorded┬аthe greatest annual increase┬аin rental costs┬аin the country, with average rent jumping by 31.8 per cent for purpose-built condos and rentals. Meanwhile, house values in Halifax-Dartmouth increased by eight per cent year-over-year in 2022.┬а

“With the pandemic and inflation and a continued imbalance between the number of people moving into [Halifax] and the number of units we’re producing, we’re getting further and further behind in terms of available supply,” said Kevin Hooper, manager of partnerships and community development at United Way Halifax.

Sonya Mullins purchased this mobile home in Hubbards for $180,000. тАЬI never even considered a mini-home [before],тАЭ she said, “But I will tell you it is probably the best choice I’ve ever made in my life.тАЭ (Submitted by Sonya Mullins)

Hooper said the situation is “dire” with a┬аgrowing numbers of people who simply have no place to go.┬а

As this trajectory continues, Hooper said it’s important for people to look beyond conventional housing that focuses on detached homes and instead encourage construction of compact dwellings, including tiny homes, manufactured homes and shipping-container homes.┬а

Rental costs continue to soar in Atlantic Canada; average rents climbed by nearly 32 per cent in 2022. (David Donnelly/CBC)

“Building a tiny home, granted it’s one unit at a time, but we need units now, so there’s an argument to be made not only in terms of the cost, but in terms of the time it takes to do it and the need.”

Hooper said encouraging more small development allows individual households to act as developers, including for adult children struggling to find housing, or older adults needing support.

“I just think that we really need to open our minds to how this can really work both for housing and for just community building writ large.”

Encouraging ‘gentle density’

Kate Green, director of regional and community planning with the HRM, said the region’s┬аbylaw┬аamendments could┬аincrease┬аoptions within the existing housing stock┬аwhich is faster┬аthan building new supply.┬а

“We’re really focused on doing what we call enabling gentle density,” Green said. “Most of Canada’s cities are made up of large areas of single family zoning. So we really want to shift that and use that land more efficiently.”

Two recent bylaw amendments in the HRM aim to encourage this shift, Green said. One was to allow shared housing┬а тАФ which includes rooming houses and seniors’ housing тАФ┬аin all residential areas.┬а

Bylaws were also amended to strike size limits from eight areas where there were minimum size requirements. They┬аalso changed rules so that mobile homes, including tiny homes,┬аcould be considered single-family dwellings which┬аallows┬аthem to be put in more places. And┬аa prohibition┬аagainst using shipping containers as backyard suites was eliminated.

Planning for doubling of population┬а

The HRM had previously taken a step toward encouraging smaller developments in 2020, when it changed rules to allow for secondary and backyard suites. Since then, the municipality has issued 371 construction permits for these kinds of units.┬а

It’s all part of dealing with a┬аprojected population of just over a million people in the greater Halifax area┬аby 2050.

“We’re going to have to keep focusing on how we create different options for housing and new forms of housing all across the region.”

After the Second World War, the federal government built thousands of small, simply constructed houses to address acute housing shortages, such as the ones pictured in this photo. (City of Ottawa Archives)

A government-led push for smaller development isn’t without precedent.┬а

Following the Second World War, demand for housing spiked, but because of the Great Depression and the war, little housing had been built for a decade.

In response, the┬аCanada Mortgage and Housing Corporation┬а(CMHC) designed and built hundreds of thousands of┬аone-and-a-half┬аstorey, 900-square-foot dwellings called “victory houses”┬аin communities across the country.

Over time, houses have grown. The average home built today is 2,200 square feet. As cities look to fit more people onto existing parcels of land, Green said downsizing might be the answer.┬а

“[Tiny homes] are less intensive use of the land. They are smaller, so you could create┬аplaces where you have more units on a given piece of land than you could with a big single-family home. So it creates more options,” said Green.

 A 8x16 foot tiny home designed and build by Roger Gallant, of EcoEnviroBuilders.
Roger Gallant’s company, EcoEnviroBuilders, focuses on off-grid tiny homes, including this eight-by-16-foot (2.5-by-3.6-metre) design. (Roger Gallant)

Roger Gallant, a tiny home builder in P.E.I. who sells to customers across the country, including in Nova Scotia, also sees a need for┬аmore kinds of housing and┬аhe’s seen growing interest.

Gallant said his clients┬аtypically want┬аto live off-grid in rural areas, though they can be modified to hook up to the grid and city water.┬а

He said while small dwellings aren’t for everyone тАФ he encourages potential buyers to come check out his tiny home and shipping container dwellings to see if they think it will┬аwork for themтАФ they could help some people for whom the average house is out of reach.┬а “We’re going to┬аhave to change something, because not everyone can afford [a house],” he said. “So people are looking for options.”

Roger Gallant's 89 square-foot tiny home.
A second design for a tiny home, which Roger Gallant currently occupies. The home is 89 square feet and fully off-grid. (Roger Gallant)

With housing costs as they currently stand, Sonya Mullins worries about the impact on families.┬аIf she hadn’t bought her mobile home, she’d be hard-pressed to afford the cost of rent in Halifax now, and if she’d been faced with those housing costs years ago, when she was a divorced mother of three working multiple jobs, it would have been impossible.

“I don’t know what I would have done. I would not have been able to sustain myself.”

Even though costs of mobile homes have gone up тАФ the same model as she bought is now selling for roughly $100,000 more тАФ she said it’s still more affordable than many other options.

And though moving to a smaller home┬аhas involved downsizing, she said being able to choose a house that’s the right size for her budget has been worth it. “I know that I’m able to live comfortably, financially,” she said.┬а “It’s wonderful.”

Leave a Reply