Halifax to be ‘local partner’ with CMHC’s housing catalogue

Halifax says it will be a local partner in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) new housing design catalogue.

The catalogue contains pre-designed building plans that are aimed at speeding up builds across the country.

The municipality says the catalogue’s designs are tailored to regional building codes, climate zones and construction practices, and are available to property owners free of charge.

As far as being a local partner in the program, Halifax says that means it will promote the designs, streamline development approvals and keep tabs on the number of permits issued for those designs.

The federal government has partnered with CMHC to develop standardized designs for homes in Canada, looking to hurdle some of the red tape in the development process and get homes built faster and more efficiently.

The organization says the annual pace of housing starts was up across the country in September compared with the month before.

The increase came as the annual pace of housing starts for Canadian centres with a population of 10,000 or greater rose to 254,345 in September, up 16 per cent from 219,408 in August.

The annual pace of rural starts was estimated at 24,889.

The six-month moving average of the seasonally adjusted annual rate was up 4.1 per cent in September at 277,147.

CMHC says actual housing starts for centres with a population of 10,000 or greater totalled 22,375 units in September, up from 18,806 in September 2024. The year-to-date total was 178,033, up five per cent from the same period in 2024.

With files from The Canadian Press.