[blender]

There is a lot of discussion here about the cost of housing, which is good to see, but I think there are some misunderstandings and misconceptions as well.
First, the term "housing" is a big bucket. You have subsidized low-income rental, market-rate rental, apartment/condominium/townhouse homes, detached homes built on speculation (built without a homeowner), and custom homes (homeowner involved from the beginning). All of these market niches have their own different drivers that effect cost and market prices, but there are also some similarities. As a home builder myself (primarily custom, with the odd foray into spec building), I can say that the single biggest cost driver is the actual cost of goods sold, which is materials and labour. Our margins have been static or have shrunk year over year since before the pandemic. I built a custom home in 2020 for 750k for a client. 2 months ago I priced virtually the identical plan with the same levelmof finihes and it was 1m.
During the past 5 years, materials and labour have gone up, just like all other things (fuel, etc). But, there has also been a push by local and provincial governments to mandated higher standards of energy efficiency (something I support), and as of this spring, code requires all new residential construction be designed by a structural engineer against seismic forces. All of these things cost real dollars.

Another thing that was mentioned earlier in the thread was Development Cost Charges levied by municipalities as a means of generating income to support growing infrastructure costs. DCCs on an average sized new home in Kamloops are 12-15k.

I'm not complaining about anything, as my business is profitable, but we are not printing money. We are working hard to provide a quality product and service, and we make a reasonable income like a lot of other small businesses in this country.

I'm as interested as anyone about housing affordability, so I will be watching keenly to see what happens moving forward.