Pre-fabricated homes touted as potential solution to Vancouver's housing crisis

Langley, B.C. -

Innovative technology in the home-building industry is being discussed by the mayors of Metro Vancouver as a way to curb the dire housing crisis.

Prefabricated or "prefab" apartment buildings can be manufactured offsite, mainly by machines, and streamline the building process.

Rod Rempel, senior advisor with Mitsui Home, believes the technology is the future of home-building.

"If you have a building that is 100,000 square feet, we're going to be 12 to 14 weeks to erect that building,” he says.

His timeline takes 35 per cent less time than the traditional building process, he says.

Mitsui Home's factory in Langely sees an architect and builder work together to come up with a plan. Then, the walls, floors and even elevator shaft are all built away from the construction site.

Later, they’re packaged together like a puzzle and transported to the lot for easy assembly.

“Eliminating all the conflicts right from the start means that the job site goes much faster,” says Rempel.

The building method is something that was discussed at Metro Vancouver’s Regional Planning Committee to streamline the delivery of rental housing with pre-approved plans.

Lisa Helps is a housing solutions advisor to B.C. Premier David Eby and presented the idea Thursday night.

"The whole thrust of all of this is to get more homes built quickly,” she told the mayors during her presentation.

According to Helps, the construction labour force shrunk by three per cent in the past five years. She believes that number will worsen, with 38,000 retirees expected in the industry over the next decade.

“We’re really going to – in a construction period – labour shortfall, and we’re going to need to find solutions,” she said.

The technology used by prefab homes is something she believes will help bridge the labour shortfall gap.

But Mike Hurley, the mayor of Burnaby, voiced his opposition for the idea.

“We just don’t have the industry to support that right now,” he said. “We have a two-storey building that we’ve been waiting to get completed by BC Housing that's two years behind, because the supply is just not there.”

While the upfront costs can be between six and eight per cent more than traditional building, Rempel says the overall costs can actually be cheaper.

He also highlights the green advantage of using new technology to build homes, as less lumber is wasted with the robotic precision.

If Metro Vancouver could agree on a standardized blueprint for the region, Rempel says apartments could be built faster than ever before.

“If we were able to build a more standardized product we would be able to probably double the efficiency of our plant,” said Rempel.

The next step is to identify municipalities interested in joining a project led by the province to explore the process.