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Economic growth patterns are being driven by tariff avoidance in the first quarter, but signs of slowing are emerging.

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REALTOR®’s Duty: Acting in the Best Interest of the Client #586

REALTORS® must always act in the best interests of their client. In this article, we break down what that means in practical terms.

1 on 1 with BCREA CEO Trevor Koot

Featuring BCREA CEO Trevor Koot, this monthly video series offers a unique look into both BCREA and the real estate and housing sectors at large.

A Place to Share Ideas

Once a month, BCREA CEO Trevor Koot steps in front of the camera to discuss housing and real estate topics relevant to both REALTORS® and the public. These videos are available on our YouTube channel playlist, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Check out the series below.

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How Offsite Construction Can Speed Up BC Housing Completions

June 17, 2025

Offsite construction has the potential to speed up BC housing completions – if stakeholders are willing to embrace it. In this video, BCREA CEO Trevor Koot explores how construction innovation can help boost BC housing supply.

Transcript

Government priorities have been known to shift. In recent years, housing policy in BC has swung from looking at taxation to development to immigration – often without a cohesive strategy. And without one, all these efforts may all be doomed to fail before they even get off the ground.

That’s why all levels of government would benefit from adopting a single guiding principle: more housing completions each year than the last. Not a massive target ten or 20 years out, but consistent improvement, year after year.

So, how are we going to do this? In our May 2025 video, we discussed a rethink of foreign investment and structured changes to development charges. But another path is housing construction innovation. And to me, that means offsite construction.

Offsite differs from traditional construction, where a lot is selected and a home is built on the spot. With offsite, most of a project’s construction is done in a centralized location and brought to the site complete.

Offsite projects can take many forms and come together in a variety of ways – from the creation of huge beams and panels used to form an external structure to more fully constructed units that come together like large LEGO blocks.

This system has many environmental, economic, and efficiency benefits over traditional construction. Offsite creates less carbon emissions waste, less construction site waste, and less neighbourhood disruption. What’s more, it makes labour force management far simpler.

However, despite all the arguments in its favour, offsite construction is still somewhat rare in BC and the rest of the country. There is a stigma associated with it. It’s not traditional, and the construction sector, like any sector, is often resistant to change.

So, collectively, we need to reduce that stigma. We need to bring offsite to the forefront of the housing affordability conversation – to identify roadblocks and remove them, for the betterment of the entire housing continuum.

We know discussions are starting to happen. At BCREA, we endorse these discussions and encourage all levels of government and stakeholders from across the sector to participate.

Adoption won’t happen overnight. But when it does, we’ll be on our way to the kind of housing completion numbers we all want to see.

BCREA Standard Forms Launch

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Explore BCREA’s new course, Ready, Set, Know: REALTOR® 2025 Edition – your go-to for BC real estate’s most current and practical topics.