First-of-its-kind housing conference in Halifax identifies need for many changes

Immigration and building codes were major topics at the housing summit in Halifax.

Taxation, immigration and the national building code were all subjects of concern to home builders at a first-of-its-kind housing summit in Halifax on Monday.

“Everything that is going into the building code is making housing more expensive,” Kevin Lee, the CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, told the room at a Halifax hotel.

The association says putting a pause on building code changes, similar to what Australia did, while determining what’s most important, would help provide some certainty and stability to the sector.

“Are the houses better? To a degree, yes,” he said in an interview. “But how much better do they need to be under the current circumstances, when we also have a housing affordability crisis?”

He said a second look is warranted.

Saturday marked National Housing Day, so Monday’s inaugural conference – titled ‘From Barriers to Blueprints: National Housing Day Summit 2025’ – brought industry together with governments to detail the problems.

“This conversation is very much about building the playbooks and the roadmaps so that the federal government has partners that it can go to and get shovels in the ground this year, and we can start to see some real momentum in 2026.

Ottawa has yet to follow through on its promise to cut the GST for first-time home buyers; that’s only a starting point that builders want to see addressed.

Lee said Canada’s immigration system needs an overhaul, to focus on skills rather than the current points-based system.

“A guy with a doctorate driving a cab or driving an Uber because they got into the country based on the points system, but they can’t work in their field,” he said to the room. “Yet, with residential construction, we could be bringing them in now and putting (them) to work immediately, so we do need to fix that.”

The summit was also hosted by Habitat for Humanity and the Nova Scotia Association of Realtors.

“We’re going to hit a plateau somewhere,” said Suzanne Gravel, the association’s president, in an interview. “We have to hit a plateau somewhere. And, if it’s not for the ‘Bank of mum and dad,’ then the banks have to figure out a way to get the first-time home buyers into a home.”

To do that, more work is needed to get people transitioning from rentals into home ownership.

“In 2021, we had about 70 per cent of our housing starts that were destined to be owned, be they low-rise or high-rise,” said Lee. “In 2025, that’s down to 50 per cent.”

“Nowadays, it seems like apartment living is becoming long term, more than being able to afford to buy a home,” said Gravel. “[You] used to be able to move into an apartment, save some money, buy a home. That was what that transition was for.

“It’s not like that anymore.”

People are feeling the pinch of the housing and affordability crisis but the onus is being put on policymakers to address it.

“It’s complex,” Lee said. “All the things we talk about, be it building code, immigration, the GST, development taxes, there’s no silver bullet to all of this.”

“We have to do all of the things. All levels of government have a role to play.”

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