Canadian Home Builders’ Association Welcomes Opportunity for Municipalities to Unlock Market-Rate Housing Supply through the Housing Accelerator Fund

OTTAWA, ON – March 17, 2023 – The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) welcomed many measures announced in today’s release of the details of the federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), particularly those supporting and encouraging municipalities to facilitate more market-rate housing supply and affordability.

Ongoing housing supply shortages are negatively impacting affordability, and CHBA has been waiting to see details on how municipalities would be encouraged to build more market-rate supply through this fund.

“CHBA has long called for collaboration across all levels of government to address housing affordability, and especially housing supply, given the direct link that not enough homes have on the cost of buying and renting. We hope the Housing Accelerator Fund is the encouragement municipalities need to address bottlenecks and accelerate more supply,” stated Kevin Lee, CEO of CHBA.

Municipalities hold the key to unlocking more supply, and with federal support and incentive, CHBA is hopeful more municipalities will move aggressively to help solve the housing supply shortage and alleviate the market-rate affordability crisis.

“We are seeing resistance from some municipalities to unlock more housing supply, so hopefully this Housing Accelerator Fund, will help overcome some of those barriers,” added Lee.

CHBA has actively advocated at the federal level for the HAF to address ways to eliminate barriers and speed up systems to get more market-rate housing supply online faster. It is now up to municipalities to take advantage of the HAF in ways that will contribute to more market-rate housing supply, to enable more Canadians to become homeowners, and to help address the affordability issues in the rental market as well.

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For media inquiries, please email media@chba.ca

ABOUT THE CANADIAN HOME BUILDERS’ ASSOCIATION
The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) is the voice of the residential construction industry in Canada, representing some 8,500 member firms across the country. Our membership spans new home builders, renovators, developers, trade contractors, building material manufacturers and suppliers, lenders, and other professionals in the housing sector.