'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
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
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.
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.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
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.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.