The Unaffordability Crisis in Canadian Housing: Insights from the 2024 Demographia Report

As Canadians continue to grapple with the high cost of homeownership, a new global report highlights just how steep those costs are in some of the nation's major urban centers. The 2024 Edition of the Demographia International Housing Affordability report has put a spotlight on the alarming unaffordability in cities like Vancouver and Toronto, deeming them “impossibly unaffordable.”

Demographia's report evaluates middle-income affordability across 94 major markets in eight countries, including Canada, China, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Each city is ranked based on its median multiple score, which is determined by dividing the average house price by the gross median household income.

Here’s a breakdown of the scoring system:

• Affordable: Score under 3

• Moderately Unaffordable: Score between 3.1 to 4

• Seriously Unaffordable: Score between 4.1 to 5

• Severely Unaffordable: Score between 5.1 to 8.9

• Impossibly Unaffordable: Score 9 or higher

This year, Toronto scored 9.3, ranking 11th in the world on the unaffordability list, while Vancouver scored an astonishing 12.3, placing it third in the world.

The Root of the Crisis

The report attributes these high prices to policies that limit growth on the periphery—historically, the typical expansion method for cities. In regions like the United Kingdom, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Zealand, Australia, and much of Canada, these restrictive policies have led to a housing shortage, driving up prices. Housing costs are outpacing income growth, exacerbating the crisis.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) indicates that an additional 3.5 million homes need to be built by 2030 to restore affordability. Despite billions in federal spending announced in April, policy-makers continue to overlook the root cause: suburban land use restrictions.

Affordable Markets in Canada

Not all Canadian markets face such extreme unaffordability:

• Edmonton: The cheapest market, labeled “moderately unaffordable” with a score of 3.6

• Calgary: Listed as “seriously unaffordable” with a score of 4.6

• Ottawa and Montreal: Considered “severely unaffordable” with scores of 5.3 and 5.8, respectively

The Housing Affordability Crisis: Causes & Solutions

Middle-income households are facing escalating housing costs, a primary factor in the current cost-of-living crisis. For decades, home prices rose at about the same rate as income, fostering widespread homeownership. However, affordability is now disappearing in high-income nations due to housing costs outpacing income growth. The crisis primarily stems from land use policies that restrict housing supply, inflating land prices and making homeownership unattainable for many.

The Trullii Modular Solution: Focusing on People, Not Places

The housing crisis demands a shift in priorities—from abstract planning ideals to the well-being of people. Legendary urbanist Jane Jacobs provided the ultimate test of planning: “If planning helps people, they ought to be better off as a result, not worse off.” Yet, the planning orthodoxy, with its principal strategy of urban containment, has been associated with worsened housing affordability. To state the obvious, this makes people worse off.

Trullii will revolutionize home construction with a focus on mass production. By building homes on automotive-like production lines, we will create fully engineered and integrated products. This innovative approach will leverage robotics and advanced machinery to streamline and enhance the entire homebuilding process. Robots will tirelessly execute tasks with unparalleled precision, reducing labor intensity and construction time.

Sustainable and High-Quality Homes

The Trullii Modular Building Model (TMBM) will accelerate production timelines and reduce the margin of error, resulting in homes of exceptional quality. Our integration of sustainable practices and materials will ensure that these automated house factories contribute to a greener future. Modular structures’ adaptability will allow cities to efficiently repurpose buildings, promoting sustainability and resource conservation. As cities evolve, older structures can transition seamlessly to new areas, embodying sustainability and circularity principles.

Additionally, by using a smaller land footprint, we will achieve higher density use, concentrating more apartment buildings in less space and offering an affordable solution to more people. Our manifesto underscores the importance of building housing faster, better, and with a focus on meeting communities' diverse needs.

Redefining Construction with Innovation

Through strategic partnerships and innovative technologies, Trullii will redefine the pace of construction, delivering homes at unprecedented speeds without sacrificing quality. By streamlining processes and embracing automation, we will address the urgent demand for housing with efficiency and precision. Trullii remains committed to making affordable housing a tangible reality for all Canadians.

Explore how Trullii Modular will transform the construction industry with innovative, sustainable practices. Visit our website to learn more about our modular homes and commitment to affordability. We invite provincial and federal governments to team up with Trullii and become part of the solution. Current programs can only provide band-aid solutions that are small in scale, but Trullii offers the comprehensive, large-scale, long-term solution needed to truly address the housing affordability crisis.