2024 Industry Innovation Agenda to Tackle Urgent Real Estate and Housing Challenges
With Canada’s real estate sector experiencing affordability, sustainability and climate challenges, a range of Canada’s key real estate leaders have formed the Industry Innovation + Transformation Council (I+T Council) convened by R-LABS, the real estate industry venture builder.
On March 26, the council unveiled its 2024 Industry Innovation Agenda (IIA), a report which outlines challenges facing the real estate sector and the steps required to address these issues.
“The real estate and housing sector is at a critical juncture and the business-as-usual approach is no longer sufficient,” said George Carras, founder and CEO, R-LABS. “The sector must work together in new ways, and with government partners, embrace new thinking and take action through open innovation and new entrepreneurial business models to tackle complex and interconnected problems. Our council is calling upon all stakeholders to shift away from conventional thinking and commit to innovation.”
The top priorities in the IIA are housing affordability, housing supply and climate resiliency.
As a result, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) stated that Canada needs to build 5.11 million homes between 2022 and 2030 to restore affordability to the housing market.
The report noted for context that Canada has never built more than two million homes in any eight-year period.
“The high cost of housing is an ongoing challenge for individuals and families,” said John DiMichele, CEO, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). “We need to adopt new methods of building homes like modular home construction to increase residential housing, including multi-unit, single-family homes, plexes, and more. However, there is too much red tape, building code complexities, and municipal policies that prevent the construction of modular housing.”
Michael Brooks, CEO, REALPAC, said, “The construction sector’s outdated practices presents an opportunity for housing transformation. Through the adoption of innovative technologies and automation, we can solve issues affecting the sector, including low productivity, expensive delays, and uncertain timelines. With the adoption of innovative technologies, we can reshape the composition of the workforce and accelerate the building process. The sector must focus on having the skills and capacity to adopt new technologies.”
Another priority in the Industry Innovation Agenda is to focus on climate resiliency as well as carbon reduction to meet Canada’s emission targets which aim to reduce emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The report noted that the real estate sector must play a central role in helping Canada reach its targets.
“In the face of increasing extreme weather events and the urgent need to meet our climate goals, we must reduce the carbon footprint of our buildings while ensuring climate resilience,” said Thomas Mueller, president and CEO, Canada Green Building Council. “By adopting deep building retrofits, scaling innovative construction methodologies, and embracing circular economy approaches we can create low-carbon, climate-resilient communities, mitigate disaster costs, and build a more sustainable future.”
The IIA recommends Canada’s real estate sector take immediate action in five key areas which include leadership and institutions, affordability and supply, climate resiliency and low carbon, optimization and capital, labour and supporting infrastructure.
With the launch of the agenda, the I+T Council announces the Innovation Pledges initiative which encourages stakeholders from the private sector, government, and not-for-profits to pledge to engage in small-scale experimentation that can scale and share the outcomes of their innovations.
As part of the initiative, R-LABS plans to invest roughly $1 million in early-stage startups focused on solving the key problems facing the real estate industry in 2024.