Build More, Better Homes: An introduction to the Housing Design Catalogue

Accelerating Housing Supply

Canada confronts a severe housing shortage, with estimates from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation indicating a deficit of millions of units needed to restore affordability. Rents and home prices have surged in recent years, pricing out young families, essential workers, and low-income households in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver.

In early 2025, the federal government unveiled the Housing Design Catalogue under the National Housing Strategy. This initiative provides a library of approximately 50 pre-approved designs for multiplexes, rowhouses, and other missing-middle housing types. The goal is to eliminate redundant design reviews and speed permitting, addressing chronic delays that inflate costs by 20-30% or more in some jurisdictions.

The timing aligns with intensified federal pressure on provinces and cities. Through the Housing Accelerator Fund, billions in grants reward municipalities for reforms including pre-approved plans, streamlined processes, and zoning changes. Several cities have already committed to using the catalogue or equivalents to unlock funding and meet ambitious targets, such as accelerating thousands of units in the next few years.

Stakes are high: inaction perpetuates homelessness rises and economic drag from workers unable to relocate. Yet trade-offs loom. Standardised designs could homogenise communities and clash with local character or heritage concerns. Critics argue they prioritise volume over quality or innovation, while proponents see them as a pragmatic response to a crisis where traditional methods deliver far too slowly.

Recent examples include Vancouver piloting catalogue designs for social housing on constrained sites, and smaller towns incorporating them into accelerator plans to fast-track affordable options. With elections and policy momentum in recent years reinforcing housing as a top voter issue, federal tools like this catalogue represent a direct intervention to force faster delivery.