One of the solutions to the housing crisis perhaps involves saving students. The creation of a real estate portfolio dedicated to the student population and protected from speculation could free up tens of thousands of housing units that Quebec would really need at a time when there is a serious shortage.
Year after year, hundreds of thousands of CEGEP students and academics flock not only to Quebec’s classrooms, but also to its private real estate market. This horde of tenants, whose number exceeded 278,000 in 2021, according to surveys carried out by the organization UTILE, is raising the temperature in an already overheating rental sector.
“The general increase in rents particularly affects the student population,” believes Laurent Lévesque, co-founder and general director of the Work Unit for the Implementation of Student Housing (UTILE). This is constantly renewed: every year, there is a new generation of young people who leave their family home to look for accommodation, without ever being able to benefit from rent control. »
As soon as a student vacates accommodation, the laws in force authorize the landlord to increase the rent as he wishes. Student life, transient by nature, therefore contributes to the rise in housing prices.
“According to CMHC – the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation – housing experiencing tenant turnover has seen rent increases of between 15 and 20% in Canada, from 2022 to 2023,” underlines the general director of the CMHC. ‘USEFUL. In two-bedroom dwellings where the tenants remained the same, the average increase was more like 2.9%. »
The situation adds another financial burden on the shoulders of a section of the population that is notoriously penniless. A UTILE survey published in 2021 shows that 62% of the 245,000 academic tenants, or 152,000 people, received less than $20,000 per year, including loans and scholarships.
More than 64% of them also spent more than 30% of their annual income on putting a roof over their heads. This proportion turns out to be significantly greater than within the general population, where, still in 2021, 374,000 households, or 10% of the 3.7 million in Quebec, allocate a third of their livelihood to housing, according to FRAPRU.
Legacy for future generations
In the eyes of UTILE, the creation of a non-profit real estate portfolio reserved for the student population would make it possible to relieve both its financial vulnerability and the housing shortage which is affecting the whole of Quebec. In this model, it is not the market that sets the rent price, but rather the construction costs.
“It has a social vocation, so rents increase as little as possible, which allows us to ensure affordability in perpetuity,” certifies Laurent Lévesque. We dream of this park not only as a way out of the current crisis, but also as a legacy for future generations. Ultimately, it is about making a collective choice about the living conditions that we want to offer our next generation. A study by the Quebec Student Union showed that housing is the main factor in student debt, well ahead of study costs. Do we want to throw young adults into Quebec society who are carrying a financial burden? »
A study by the Quebec Student Union showed that housing is the main factor in student debt, well ahead of study costs. Do we want to throw young adults into Quebec society who are carrying a financial burden?
The proverbial nerve of war in the battle against the housing shortage is the cost and time of construction. At UTILE, each door is built, on average, for around $200,000. Certain initiatives implemented in Europe, where the use of manufactured housing – the famous prefabricated – makes it possible to reduce the cost and construction times, deserve to be considered by Quebec.
Dutch cabin life
Leaders in this field, the Netherlands have developed the first student campus built from shipping containers. Called Keetwonen, or “cabin life”, the site designed and built by the firm TempoHousing includes 1,034 modules covering more than 31,000 m2the equivalent of 25 Olympic swimming pools.
Started at the end of 2005, the construction of Keetwonen ended in May 2006 – a completion rate of 150 housing units per month. A decade after its launch, the largest homes in the complex, with an area of 28 m2left for 400 euros all inclusive.
The Dutch idea traveled notably to Germany, Great Britain, Australia and France, where similar accommodation saw the light of day in Le Havre. The A Docks complex, also built from abandoned shipping containers, has 100 rooms spread across two four-story buildings.
The project was completed, here too, in record time: five months after the permit was issued, the last unit was already in place, whereas the erection of a traditional university residence would have taken two and a half years to build, according to an article in Cahiers techniques du logement devoted to the concept.
The future in the factory
“There are a lot of advantages to prefabrication,” says Avi Friedman, professor at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University. It’s like assembling a car: all the staff are on site, at the factory, everyone knows the work and everyone works for the same company. In traditional construction, there are several companies to coordinate: the electrician must be free when we need him. If he can only come in a week, the construction site is paused for a week. Sometimes you have to wait for materials to be delivered, while at the factory everything is in stock, ready for use. »
In the eyes of the multiple award-winning professor named to the magazine’s list of 10 people likely to change the way we live Wallpaperin 2000, Keetwonen was a “truly extraordinary” success from which Quebec could draw inspiration.
“It was extremely quick and the advantage, with this layout concept, is that it is possible to disassemble the whole thing. The land can change its purpose if necessary. » Keetwonen was initially supposed to live for five years, but given the enthusiasm of the tenants and the constant needs, the complex is still standing today, almost 20 years after its inauguration.
In Le Havre, one of the founders of the defunct Newden Design firm, at the origin of the A’Docks complex, Eric Clairefond, was the apostle of the construction of industrial housing. “Getting “modular solutions” out of their straitjacket […] to allow the creation of housing in the noblest sense of the term is the meaning of History, he wrote emphatically in the review Constructive in 2011. The need to respond to the triple challenge of “deadlines, price, quality”, a blocking factor in the housing market in France, opens a new era for the industrialization of the act of building. »
A lasting reputation
In Quebec, prefabricated products are still struggling to break into the market. “We are little known by government authorities,” laments Yves Côté, coordinator of the Association of Modular Building Manufacturers of Quebec (AMBMQ). We’re still kind of below the radar. »
“This is not unique to Quebec, the phenomenon affects all of North America,” adds Avi Friedman. Prefabricated construction here only occupies 15% of the market. This is explained by historical reasons, but also because of a bad image which means that it is neither reliable, nor good, nor of quality. People still associate prefab with mobile homes which are cheap. »
However, “at the same price”, the factory-built modules offer superior quality, according to Yves Côté. “The factory is at point A, the erection site is at point B and in between there is transportation. You know the state of our roads: our modules must be solid to arrive at their destination in top shape! »