The Fraser Valley is in pole position to adopt prefabrication and other innovative construction methods despite the current market downturn, says a new report.

There is a fundamental need for faster, “smarter” housing delivery in jurisdictions like North Delta, White Rock, Surrey, City of Langley, Township of Langley, Abbotsford and Mission, according to an Oct. 30 report by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB).

“When you look at all these seven jurisdictions, in many places, the only way to build is up,” said Shafiq Jamal, FVREB’s stakeholder and government relations affairs facilitator, giving the example of prefabricated highrise technology.

The real estate market may fluctuate, but that doesn’t change the underlying demand for more housing starts and completions, which prefab can deliver efficiently through a production-line approach, said FVREB board chair Tore Jacobsen.

“The market conditions are the here and the now. What doesn’t change as a result of the market condition are the targets as it relates to housing starts and housing needs over a continuum of time,” he said.

“That demand remains. Housing is still going to be required, and housing at a lower price and at a faster timeline is certainly welcome.”

The FVREB report gives nine policy recommendations to accelerate prefab adoption. Chief among them is the need to harmonize municipal zoning. The report gives the example of Chilliwack and Mission, where there are differences in minimum lot sizes, minimum building widths, height allowances, parking requirements and multi-unit regulation.

“For prefabricated builders, it means developing multiple designs or having to custom essentially the same home to satisfy different municipal codes, raising production and compliance costs,” the report said.

FVREB’s other recommendations include a call for the province to create a “procurement roadmap” to help achieve economies of scale and provide prefabricators a steady pipeline of projects justifying major upfront capital investment.

Strengthening financing is also needed, with FVREB calling for a dedicated prefab stream within the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s apartment construction loan program, which provides low-cost loans to build rental apartments across Canada.

“This stream should adapt underwriting criteria to factory-built housing by aligning financing draws with the off-site production cycle rather than exclusively with on-site construction milestones,” said the report.

Mass Timber in Focus

The FVREB report highlights mass timber prefabrication as a particularly promising technology, saying it’s “a key component in off-site building methods.”

One Metro Vancouver mass timber company with Fraser Valley projects says benefits include sustainability, suitability for prefabrication and quicker installation. But challenges include the need for wider education about how mass timber works differently as a structural system.

“It wants to replace concrete and steel in some ways, but it’s not a like-for-like swap,” said Jamie Sullivan, preconstruction manager with Coquitlam-based Seagate Mass Timber Inc.

User clients, general contractors and builders should recognize that the layout of major structural elements like columns, girders and beams can differ, and that mass timber may behave differently in terms of moisture management, weather protection and fire performance, she said.

Cost is another consideration. There is an understanding that the cost of fibre can be at a premium to steel and concrete, though Sullivan said this cost comes with value.

“The higher cost also comes with the fact that everything is pre-planned and prefabricated, so it’s definitely not the same as casting a big concrete slab,” she said.

“It’s sort of a Lego set that wants to go up once it’s out to site.”

Seagate’s current projects in the Fraser Valley include a 92,000-square-foot covered soccer field at Smith Athletic Park in the Township of Langley. Seagate has worked on multi-family and student housing projects elsewhere in the region.

FVREB’s Jacobsen said the Fraser Valley is ripe for prefabricated housing, which has evolved from single-family ranchers to multi-storey housing and highrises.

“It covers the gamut of the housing needs that are out there, and so certainly the Fraser Valley is a place where it would be appropriate to explore,” he said.

Fraser Valley Has Prefab Potential Despite Slow Market by Jami Makan | BIV