{"id":26802,"date":"2025-11-24T11:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=26802"},"modified":"2025-11-18T10:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T18:10:16","slug":"mass-timber-projects-in-focus-highlight-key-difference-prefab-potential-in-fraser-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2025\/11\/mass-timber-projects-in-focus-highlight-key-difference-prefab-potential-in-fraser-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass Timber Projects in Focus : Highlight Key Difference &#038; Prefab Potential in Fraser Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Fraser Valley is in pole position to adopt prefabrication and other innovative construction methods despite the current market downturn, says a new report.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is a fundamental need for faster, \u201csmarter\u201d 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).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhen you look at all these seven jurisdictions, in many places, the only way to build is up,\u201d said Shafiq Jamal, FVREB\u2019s stakeholder and government relations affairs facilitator, giving the example of prefabricated highrise technology.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The real estate market may fluctuate, but that doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe market conditions are the here and the now. What doesn\u2019t 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThat demand remains. Housing is still going to be required, and housing at a lower price and at a faster timeline is certainly welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cFor 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,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">FVREB\u2019s other recommendations include a call for the province to create a \u201cprocurement roadmap\u201d to help achieve economies of scale and provide prefabricators a steady pipeline of projects justifying major upfront capital investment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Strengthening financing is also needed, with FVREB calling for a dedicated prefab stream within the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.\u2019s apartment construction loan program, which provides low-cost loans to build rental apartments across Canada.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis 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,\u201d said the report.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Mass Timber in Focus<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The FVREB report highlights mass timber prefabrication as a particularly promising technology, saying it\u2019s \u201ca key component in off-site building methods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt wants to replace concrete and steel in some ways, but it\u2019s not a like-for-like swap,\u201d said Jamie Sullivan, preconstruction manager with Coquitlam-based Seagate Mass Timber Inc.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe higher cost also comes with the fact that everything is pre-planned and prefabricated, so it\u2019s definitely not the same as casting a big concrete slab,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt\u2019s sort of a Lego set that wants to go up once it\u2019s out to site.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Seagate\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">FVREB\u2019s Jacobsen said the Fraser Valley is ripe for prefabricated housing, which has evolved from single-family ranchers to multi-storey housing and highrises.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biv.com\/news\/real-estate\/fraser-valley-has-prefab-potential-despite-slow-market-says-board-11499926\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fraser Valley Has Prefab Potential Despite Slow Market<\/a> by Jami Makan | BIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2025\/11\/mass-timber-projects-in-focus-highlight-key-difference-prefab-potential-in-fraser-valley\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-sale-projects","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mass Timber Projects in Focus : Highlight Key Difference &amp; Prefab Potential in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2025\/11\/mass-timber-projects-in-focus-highlight-key-difference-prefab-potential-in-fraser-valley\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Mass Timber Projects in Focus : Highlight Key Difference &amp; Prefab Potential in Fraser Valley &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Fraser Valley is in pole position to adopt prefabrication and other innovative construction methods despite the current market downturn, says a new report. 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