'Greater than 1,000 to 1,500 homes a year in 2025 and 2026': St. Thomas, Ont. expecting housing tidal wave
It was 18 months ago when St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston stood at the first council meeting after re-election and boldly declared he wanted 500 homes built per year during his term.
That was before the Volkswagen EV battery plant announcement.
“I think by the time we get to 2025 and 2026, we might have to be looking at greater than 1,000 or 1,500 homes in each of those years,” said Preston.
High interest rates held both buyers and builders back on single family home growth in 2023. Preston said they pivoted to market rent apartments, and nearly hit their goal with 483 doors.
“I don’t think its going to be one and done with Volkswagen that is coming here,” explained Doug Tarry of Doug Tarry Homes. “If you look at the tidal wave that's coming, we're standing on the edge of the water and the water's receding. So if we're this busy now [and] the water is receding, wow. It's going to be crazy. So we're all having to look at how to scale up.”
Scaling up means not only higher density, but also the higher number of homes and different types.
It also includes purchasing more land, which Tarry has done recently off Highway 3 in St. Thomas, not far from the future Volkswagen plant.
A construction worker pounds a nail into a home on Dunning Way in St Thomas, Ont. on April 15, 2024. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
“It's also working with the local municipalities on infrastructure because we have to know where the sanitary is going to go,” said Tarry. “Where's the poop go? So until we can get that settled, it's very difficult to advance forward on where the subdivisions can go.”
Tarry also describes going through “four different economies in four years,” and said it’s not only the interest rates which could make it difficult for builders, but also customer expectation.
“We now have to start looking at the future for how do we balance carbon,” said Tarry. “How do we balance sustainability? How do we look at resiliency? All these other elements that have got to be built into the homes right from the get go? Customers are expecting it. They just come assuming that this is already included in the house.”
The St. Thomas and Elgin Home Builders Association (SEHBA) is expecting a “spring market.”
They just spent the past week at Queen’s Park speaking with government officials about upcoming housing incentives.
“The government is now supporting homes that need to be retrofitted to offer secondary dwellings,” said Angela Devries, executive officer with SEHBA.
A new subdivision is being built on Southdale Line in St. Thomas, Ont. on April 15, 2024. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)She explained, “There's incentives to people that are investing in the home to make that happen. We have incentives for first-time homebuyers as mortgage rates are now 30-year option instead of just 25. That's something that has not been changed in a very, very long time. That five years adds a significant amount of borrowing bandwidth, so that adds a lot more buyers into the market.”
Preston has been speaking with London Mayor Josh Morgan, Southwold Mayor Grant Jones and Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan about looking together to continue to build housing on the outskirts of St. Thomas.
He said there are areas in the northwest of St. Thomas which are starting under subdivision agreements. He believes changes need to be made with new builds.
“We think even in new subdivisions from now on, there'll be density,” said Preston. “We can't just build swaths of single family homes, so it can be a lot of single family homes with some stacked townhouses, some duplexes and tall apartment buildings all in the same subdivision. We have progressive growth, and we caused it so now we have to fix it.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
The remains belonged to three adults, a teenager and a newborn baby, according to a statement from the Latebra Foundation, a historical organization based in the Polish city of Gdansk, published Thursday.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh confirms his party will support the Liberals' federal budget
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will support the federal budget, ending any speculation that the party could pull out of its deal with the minority Liberal government.
Dental care program accepting claims for 1 million seniors
Citizens' Services Minister Terry Beech says 1,200 seniors have already visited a dentist and had their claims processed by the federal government's new dental care plan.