For the launch of its fifth season,Intended Consequences returns with an episode dedicated to a major concern for Ontarians going into the upcoming provincial election: housing and the politics of development.

Posted with permission of the publisher of NRU Publishing Inc. Original article first appeared in Novae Res Urbis Toronto, Vol. 26, No. 17, Friday, April 29, 2022.

Today, Mayor John Tory, joined by Deputy Mayor Ana Bailão (Davenport), Chair, Planning and Housing Committee and Councillor Joe Cressy (Spadina-Fort York) announced a pilot program that will bring new affordable rental housing to the City-owned site at 1113-1117 Dundas St. W. (Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue), currently operating as a Toronto Parking Authority parking lot.

Plans are in the works for the first-ever mass timber Passive House condo project in Toronto, a venture between R-Hauz, Windmill Developments and Leader Lane that will include three six-storey residential buildings.

We recently built the first (of many, we hope) mass timber residential buildings in Ontario. The six-story avenue townhome is a new building typology for Ontario and it’s one that offers an opportunity to build faster and more sustainably while giving residents a beautiful, functional living space.

People searching for an affordable home in Toronto could soon have a choice never seen before in Canada’s largest city: prefabricated modular condos. Inspired by a style of building found in parts of Scandinavia, Germany and elsewhere in Europe, a trio of companies is hoping to construct three mid-rise condo buildings and do so quickly and sustainably, says Michael Barker, co-founder of R-Hauz Solutions, a firm that builds prefabricated homes.

An overview of the new bill through the lens of industry stakeholders, who comment on the advantages, disadvantages and implications of the More Homes For Everyone Act if passed.

The provincial government released new housing legislation entitled the More Homes for Everyone Act, 2022. This is a very encouraging announcement for accelerating the construction of critically needed new housing supply in Ontario. R-Hauz, a real estate company developing mid-rise mass timber and laneway housing products is especially encouraged with the aspects of the bill that focus on changes to the building code.