Burnaby wants to be part of a coalition of “local government champions” as part of a provincial plan to deliver more housing for “middle-income” families.
It’s part of a Metro Vancouver agreement to explore pre-approved building plans and off-site construction to streamline the delivery of rental housing.
Metro Vancouver’s board chair George Harvie, Mayor of Delta, wrote to Burnaby council asking if there was interest in becoming early adopters for the program.
He said off-site pre-fabrication is a “modern method” to deliver rental housing that could drive supply and affordability.
Burnaby formally agreed to be a leader on the project at a council meeting in November.
“It’s being viewed as a possibility to help to provide rental housing and, specifically, below-market rental housing, so we hope this is a successful endeavour,” said Mayor Mike Hurley at the meeting Nov. 20.
As a participant in the project, Burnaby will explore creating and implementing standardized guidelines and zoning regulations for six-storey rental buildings, including pre-approved building plans.
A Metro Vancouver report said the ability to build housing has been challenged by “unprecedented construction cost escalation,” in part due to rising interest rates and labour shortages.
It added there was a “reduced level of housing starts in early 2023.”
It takes an average of 22 months of construction to complete an apartment, in addition to more before construction for planning approvals, said the Metro report.
Off-site construction could reduce that time by 20 to 50 per cent, including pre-fabrication and building component parts off-site, and reduce costs by 30 per cent, according to the report.
“Only a small proportion of housing projects are currently built off-site in B.C. (~5 per cent of new construction), significantly less than in European countries, like Sweden, which has the world’s highest rate of off-site construction (80 per cent of single-detached projects, and 10 per cent of multi-family projects, with up to 50 per cent pre-fabricated components,” said the report.
