Dan Fumano: B.C. looks to build faster, cheaper rental homes with prefabricated units

B.C. cannot tackle its housing shortage without fundamentally changing the way homes are built, experts and builders say: We need less of a custom-made work-of-art approach and more of a factory assembly line.

The demand for rental housing in the Metro region is significantly outpacing supply of purpose-built rentals, the report says. Between the 2016 and 2021 census periods, the number of renter households in Metro Vancouver increased by 13.2 per cent, a growth of 46,010 renter households, while the purpose-built rental stock increased by just 5.6 per cent, a net increase of only 6,195 homes.

“British Columbia will never, ever meet housing supply and affordability targets without a significant shift to off-site construction. It’s not possible,” said Alex Boston, an urban planner specializing in climate, housing and land use. “We’ve got to move to an assembly line.”

A major reason for that is labour, Boston says.