B.C.’s development industry calls for lower building costs

We're going to turn things now over to a very unlikely alliance, but they have a lot in common right now. We are talking about the development industry and the nonprofit housing authority. Let's face it, it's getting more expensive to build, which is driving up the cost of market and non-market homes. We're joined today by Michael Drummond, CEO of the Urban Development Institute, which represents the developers in this community. And Jill Atkey, the CEO of the BC Nonprofit Housing Association. Thank you to you both for coming in studio. I really prefer the conversation in person than over the phone.

Thank you, Robin. Thank you.

Jill, I want to start with you. The province says its housing reforms are intended to accelerate construction and improve affordability. I'm guessing you don't agree.

Well, absolutely. And, you know, I want to start off by saying this is a government that has made significant investment into the build-out of non-market supply. But in the last year, we've received some very troubling signals from government about the future of those supply programs. And I think where we're coming from on this particular issue in terms of market and non-market supply is it's incredibly difficult to build anything anywhere in this province right now.

Mike, I'm sure you can supplement that with some data because you represent the developers.

Yeah, it's the worst market since the 1980s, right? Huge downturn, huge unsold inventory sitting there. But if we look at the existing home sales, also some of the worst numbers in decades.

And I believe the NDP leader wants to tax those empty condos that are sitting there that developers want to sell. And I'm sure that you would like to see, Jill, some development on your front for people who need it.

Yeah. When we look at the real incomes of renters in this province, we're talking about a median income of $63,000. So that's for household pre-tax income. The market is not building for and can't build for the median income. renter household in this province. That's where our sector comes in. And we've got 5,000 homes that have been deferred by government just in the last year. And those are real homes that should be under construction today. They asked for shovel-ready projects. Those came in through a call for proposals that was cancelled. And announced projects under the Indigenous Housing Fund were also cancelled. All told, that's 5,000 homes that should be under construction that real British Columbians could be moving into. And

a lot of those projects can't be just paused, right? These groups have paid for land, they've got getting close to building permits, so they're in a process. They can't just stop.

I mean, how much does it cost now to build something like for Jill's organization, for people who have like 5,000 places right there? I mean, I'm sure the wait list is even longer than the 5,000.

It's actually – it costs more to build a lot of these BC housing projects because they have – a design guideline that requires higher energy efficiency. And it can be up to 30% more to build a BC housing project than a purpose-built rental project in the private sector.

This affordability is on top of minds of