Housing costs have soared. Are smaller dwellings the answer?

For Sonya Mullins, the benefits of thinking small are obvious —  when it comes to housing

Mullins grew up in Halifax, but spent the bulk of her life in Montreal. Prior to the pandemic, she was thinking about moving back to Nova Scotia. But by the time she seriously began looking, housing prices had jumped so much that a traditional, single-family house was out of her reach. 

"I never even considered a mini-home [before]," she said. "But it was an option that I was able to afford."

Mullins did some research and purchased a mini-home in Hubbards west of Halifax for $180,000, sight unseen. "I will tell you it is probably the best choice I've ever made in my life."

As housing costs continue to climb in Nova Scotia, officials and service providers hope smaller homes could be part of the solution. The Halifax Regional Municipality recently voted to get rid of minimum dimensions for single-unit homes, and to eliminate restrictions on shipping containers and mobile homes. 

It's part of a shift some hope will help meet the need for housing at the speed and scale that's required while the province's population continues to grow. 

Home values, rental costs continue to climb

In Nova Scotia, the huge price increases of the early years of the pandemic have levelled off, but demand continues to outstrip supply. 

In December, Atlantic Canada recorded the greatest annual increase in rental costs in the country, with average rent jumping by 31.8 per cent for purpose-built condos and rentals. Meanwhile, house values in Halifax-Dartmouth increased by eight per cent year-over-year in 2022. 

"With the pandemic and inflation and a continued imbalance between the number of people moving into [Halifax] and the number of units we're producing, we're getting further and further behind in terms of available supply," said Kevin Hooper, manager of partnerships and community development at United Way Halifax.

Hooper said the situation is "dire" with a growing number of people who simply have no place to go. 

As this trajectory continues, Hooper said it's important for people to look beyond conventional housing that focuses on detached homes and instead encourage construction of compact dwellings, including tiny homes, manufactured homes and shipping container homes. 

"Building a tiny home, granted it's one unit at a time, but we need units now, so there's an argument to be made not only in terms of the cost, but in terms of the time it takes to do it and the need."

Hooper said encouraging more small development allows individual households to act as developers, including for adult children struggling to find housing, or older adults needing support.

"I just think that we really need to open our minds to how this can really work both for housing and for just community building writ large."

Encouraging 'gentle density'

Kate Greene, director of regional and community planning with the HRM, said the region's bylaw amendments could increase options within the existing housing stock which is faster than building new supply. 

"We're really focused on doing what we call enabling gentle density," Greene said. "Most of Canada's cities are made up of large areas of single family zoning. So we really want to shift that and use that land more efficiently."

Two recent bylaw amendments in the HRM aim to encourage this shift, Greene said. One was to allow shared housing  — which includes rooming houses and seniors' housing — in all residential areas. 

Bylaws were also amended to strike size limits from eight areas where there were minimum size requirements. They also changed rules so that mobile homes, including tiny homes, could be considered single-family dwellings which allows them to be put in more places. And a prohibition against using shipping containers as backyard suites was eliminated.

Planning for doubling of population 

The HRM had previously taken a step toward encouraging smaller developments in 2020, when it changed rules to allow for secondary and backyard suites. Since then, the municipality has issued 371 construction permits for these kinds of units. 

It's all part of dealing with a projected population of just over a million people in the greater Halifax area by 2050.

"We're going to have to keep focusing on how we create different options for housing and new forms of housing all across the region."

A government-led push for smaller development isn't without precedent.  

Following the Second World War, demand for housing spiked, but because of the Great Depression and the war, little housing had been built for a decade.

In response, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation designed and built hundreds of thousands of one-and-a-half storey, 900-square-foot dwellings called "victory houses" in communities across the country.

Over time, houses have grown. The average home built today is 2,200 square feet. As cities look to fit more people onto existing parcels of land, Greene said downsizing might be the answer. 

"[Tiny homes] are less intensive use of the land. They are smaller, so you could create places where you have more units on a given piece of land than you could with a big single-family home. So it creates more options," said Greene.

Roger Gallant, a tiny home builder in P.E.I. who sells to customers across the country, including in Nova Scotia, also sees a need for more kinds of housing and he's seen growing interest.

Gallant said his clients typically want to live off-grid in rural areas, though they can be modified to hook up to the grid and city water. 

He said while small dwellings aren't for everyone — he encourages potential buyers to come check out his tiny home and shipping container dwellings to see if they think it will work for them— they could help some people for whom the average house is out of reach.  "We're going to have to change something, because not everyone can afford [a house]," he said. "So people are looking for options."

With housing costs as they currently stand, Mullins worries about the impact on families. If she hadn't bought her mobile home, she'd be hard-pressed to afford the cost of rent in Halifax now, and if she'd been faced with those housing costs years ago, when she was a divorced mother of three working multiple jobs, it would have been impossible.

"I don't know what I would have done. I would not have been able to sustain myself."

Even though costs of mobile homes have gone up — the same model as she bought is now selling for roughly $100,000 more — she said it's still more affordable than many other options.

And though moving to a smaller home has involved downsizing, she said being able to choose a house that's the right size for her budget has been worth it. "I know that I'm able to live comfortably, financially," she said.  "It's wonderful."