People keep saying the government can build cheaper and developers have massive hidden margins so I want to examine a project. If it was Ford people would scream the Conservatives are corrupt so lets look at NDP projects. I do this because I'm trying to hammer into the bricks some people call brains that it is expensive to build housing and it is not a conspiracy.

Here's the example Example

On free land the government is spending 560 million to build 1508 student beds. That's beds not units, there is a mix of studio, dorm, four and 2-3 bedroom units. 400 units will be without kitchens. These are all going to be pretty small units likely ranging from 250sqft to 900sqft. Let's assume a two bedroom unit as the average. So 560 million/1508*2=$742,705 dollars a unit to build government housing on free land. Note that there are some extra facilities but also strata buildings have gyms/pools/parking so likely it's less cost per unit for those than a strata would have to pay per unit. This is basic student housing too, people/family housing would need more luxuries.

So if people could please stop believing in conspiracy theories or that government can "do it better" it would be appreciated. Housing will never drop significantly below cost to build as long as population increase is positive. Prepare for costs to swing back up soon as currently they are below cost.

A reminder that there is no underground parkade in this example so thats already a savings of around $50k/unit versus a normal strata building which more than makes up for the cost of the extra stuff they add in.