Some of Ontario’s newest homes are being built in places where few people would expect them. Through projects like laneway homes, garden suites and multiplexes, middle housing is helping add new homes in established neighbourhoods that might otherwise have little room to grow.
Vancity Community Investment Bank, Vancity’s Schedule 1 bank subsidiary, has seen that potential firsthand. The bank works with builders and developers who are redeveloping single-family properties into multiplex projects, often incorporating laneway homes or garden suites.
Since January, those efforts have helped deliver:
• 16 middle housing projects across Ontario
• 92 new homes
• More than $55 million in financing
While these projects may be small in scale individually, together they’re helping reshape how communities think about housing growth.
Filling a housing gap
For years, restrictive zoning kept many neighbourhoods dominated by one housing type: detached single-family houses. That imbalance limited housing choice and left too many people, especially lower- and middle-income earners, priced out of the housing market.
Creating more middle housing broadens the housing mix in established neighbourhoods, eases pressure on prices and helps people stay connected to their communities.
“No single housing type will solve Canada’s affordability challenge,” says Eric Visser, Managing Director, Commercial Real Estate & Climate Finance at Vancity Community Investment Bank.
“A multiplex project including a laneway home or a garden suite may add only a handful of homes, but together these projects are expanding housing options.”
Building on decades of experience
More than a decade ago, Vancity was among the first financial institutions in Canada to finance laneway homes and has continued to support innovative approaches to increasing housing supply.
Today, Vancity Community Investment Bank is building on that experience in Ontario and beyond, where it remains one of the few financial institutions willing to underwrite complex, small-scale housing developments.
“Behind every middle housing project is a different housing need. It might be helping families live closer together, creating new paths to ownership, or supporting aging in place. Financing is a critical part of bringing these projects forward and creating the housing choice our communities need,” says Jennifer Hutcheon, Head of Vancity Community Investment Bank.
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Vancity Community Investment Bank provides financing solutions for builders and developers delivering middle housing projects, including multiplex developments that incorporate laneway homes and garden suites.
Explore our financing solutions or reach out to our team to learn how we can support your project.
