R esearch Highlights
April 2002 Socio-economic Series Issue 101
Pro-Home: a progressive, planned approach
to affordable home ownership
The incidence of homelessness in some Canadian cities An incremental approach to housing development is
emphasizes a lack of affordable housing and the need for not a new concept. In fact, it is a form of owner-built
housing solutions that would benefit low-income households. development that characterized pre-1950s housing in many
This occurrence is particularly evident in cities with low Canadian cities. Since the 1960s, the approach has also been
vacancy rates and high housing costs, such as Toronto. In encouraged in developing countries by the World Bank
1998, the cost of an average starter home in Toronto was
and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements.
beyond the means of more than two thirds (about 600,000)
of Toronto households that did not already own a house. Schemes vary from provision of municipal infrastructure,
to less planned approaches with no services. These
Research funded by Canada Mortgage and Housing
schemes—particularly those involving owner-builders—
Corporation (CMHC), under its External Research
have enabled a wider range of income groups to achieve
Program, describes a new incremental or “progressive”
home ownership both with and, more often, without
approach to home building; it examines also its potential
to increase access to affordable home ownership in Canada.
The proposed design and development approach, named In the first half of the 1900s, lower income, immigrant
“Pro-Home”, does not rely on government subsidy. families developed large portions of older Canadian cities
using their own, and in some cases their neighbours’,
labour and capital. Subdivided park or farm lots were
Objectives developed unevenly, without any overall plan, but this
approach provided affordable homes for many working-
The research objectives for this project were as follows:
class families. According to some estimates, as much as
• Define the context and rationale for developing 25 per cent of housing built in Toronto between 1900
an incremental approach to housing production and 1913 was self-built.
in Canada, including the potential target market
These early owner-built homes included, among others,
the cottage (1850s-1930s), the tarpaper shack (1910-20s),
• Examine a number of Canadian and international the Eaton's home (1918), the basement home (1950s) and
precedents of incremental housing approaches and the bungalow and basement (1960s). Figure 1 shows an
draw lessons from them. early kit house.
• Describe the Pro-Home concept through design
drawings and three-dimensional models that illustrate
• Explore the feasibility and potential of the Pro-Home
concept through a hypothetical application scenario at
a potential demonstration site.
• Propose an implementation framework identifying key
organizational elements that bridge the gap between
concept and action.
Figure 1: Early kit house,Toronto A Pro-Home may be built either in sections, beginning
with a core that can be added to, horizontally or
vertically, or as a complete shell with the interior left
unfinished. In the first instance, each section is fully
habitable, whereas in the second option, the owner
can reside in the enclosed space or basement while
completing the remaining superstructure.The house
design can use popular construction methods or
prefabrication packages that can be easily deconstructed
into separate units, to enable construction in stages.
Figure 2: Pro-Home community at various
stages of development
At the start of the 1900s, the introduction of building,
planning and health regulations in Toronto began to
impede incremental housing development. By mid-century,
development practices were beginning to exclude the
more modest owner-builder, grow-as-you-go solution, in
favour of new, fully planned and serviced developments.
In the relatively rapid shift from unplanned to planned
housing development, a housing process accessible to a
wide range of income groups was replaced with a housing
product for affluent households.
Pro-Home's focus on staged expansion distinguishes it
Depending on interest rates, households below the 50th from Grow Home, which concentrates on reconfiguring
and 60th income percentile lost the option of developing the interior space over time. Sprout, also a Canadian
their own properties gradually. As a result, these families concept, is designed to accommodate expansion like Pro-
were forced to become tenants in high-rise buildings that Home, but it differs in that initial construction involves
began to appear in inner-city areas during the 1960s. a small starter home, as opposed to a more basic core
section or just the exterior shell.
The Pro-Home concept Construction of a Pro-Home might progress over a
period of time as follows: a single-storey coach house
The Pro-Home concept embodies the following key unit is built at the rear of a lot; a second storey is added
features: to the coach house; the basement and a ground floor
• incremental—Pro-Home allows homeowners to start section of a starter home are built at the front of the lot;
with a home they can afford and then to expand or extensions are added to the ground floor unit; a second
alter it as circumstances evolve. storey is added to the main house; and finally, a third
floor completes the front house, with the rear building
• affordable—Pro-Home enables home ownership
used as either a garage or a coach house (Figure 3).
by seeing housing as a process rather than product.
• flexible—A Pro-Home can be built by a contractor, The standard size of a Pro-Home floor plate is
the owner, or a combination of both; it can also 6.1 m x 6.1 m (20 ft x 20 ft). The walls and roof are
include an accessory unit, which can be used as a matched to this to facilitate future expansion and
source of income. renovation, and each additional floor is the same standard
size. The floor plan can be configured to accommodate
rental units, live-in flats or otherwise arranged according
to the specific needs of the owner.
As the house expands from one phase to the next, payments, property taxes and heating costs rose from
the roof can be removed and new floor and wall panels $53,821 in the first half of 1997 to $64,838 in the first
added. The existing roof can be reused and placed half of 1998, an increase of 17 per cent. According to
directly on top of the new walls. Prefabricated floors Statistics Canada, the annual income for the majority of
are framed to incorporate future phase additions, such Toronto households (68 per cent) was less than $60,000
as areas for stair openings and mechanical services. in 1996 (Figure 4). In other words, by 1998, most
households could not afford an average starter home.
Figure 3: The six phases of Pro-Home’s
expansion Figure 4: Toronto households by income
% of households
under $10,000- $20,000- $30,000- $40,000- $50,000- over
$10,000 19,999 29,999 39,999 49,999 59,999 $60,000
The analysis indicated that not only is there a sizeable
potential market for Pro-Home in Toronto but it is also
distributed across the city. It is estimated that Pro-Home
would enable as many as 224,000 additional households
within Toronto to purchase a starter home. A similar
need for a practical solution such as Pro-Home is also
evident in other cities.
To illustrate Pro-Home's feasibility, a preliminary pro
forma and development budget were developed using
an actual Toronto site. An underlying assumption was
that the site would be developed on a not-for-profit basis.
The analysis demonstrated that Pro-Home development
does not require subsidies or reductions in land market
value or to development levies. It also confirmed the
availability of financing.
Depending on the development scenario, Pro-Home
can potentially increase access to home ownership by
a significant margin. In Toronto, for example, using even
a fully developed model (basement and ground floor
section), the qualifying income for a Pro-Home in 2000
was estimated at $41,745. This is $23,000 lower than the
Market and feasibility analyses:Toronto as a case estimated annual income ($64,750) required in 2000 for
in point an average existing starter home.
According to data published by CMHC, the average Implementation framework
starter house price in the Toronto Census Metropolitan
Certain organizational aspects could contribute to
Area was $201,337 in the first half of 1998.The estimated
the success of incremental housing development. For
annual household income necessary to cover mortgage
example, partnerships with non-profit groups will likely
increase a development's potential for creating affordable
CMHC Project Manager: Fanis Grammenos
housing. The inclusion of a developer, a planning and
design firm as well as a prefabricated homes producer Research Consultant: John van Nostrand, Planning Alliance
could also be instrumental to reducing costs.
10-step implementation process
Housing Research at CMHC
1. Identify demonstration sites.
Under Part IX of the National Housing Act, the Government of
2. Solicit proposals from developers. Canada provides funds to CMHC to conduct research into
the social, economic and technical aspects of housing and
3. Develop concept plan and housing proposal.
related fields, and to undertake the publishing and distribution
4. Conduct consultation/focus groups. of the results of this research.
5. Form private/public partnership(s). This fact sheet is one of a series intended to inform you of
the nature and scope of CMHC’s research.
6. Prepare detailed implementation plan.
7. Subdivide land.
To find more Research Highlights plus a wide variety
8. Construct model homes.
of information products, visit our Web site at
9. Establish building store/resource centre. www.cmhc.ca
10. Begin construction of housing development. or contact:
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
700 Montreal Road
Pro-Home offers a planned, incremental approach to Phone: 1 800 668-2642
housing development specifically geared to making home Fax: 1 800 245-9274
ownership accessible to low-income households by a
means not currently available through other approaches
to home ownership. It allows buyers to start with a
home they can afford, and then expand and renovate as
their circumstances change. The option of an accessory
unit and homeowners participating in the home-building
process help to reduce the cost of owning and
maintaining a home.
OUR WEB SITE ADDRESS: www.cmhc.ca
Although this information product reflects housing experts' current knowledge, it is provided for general information purposes only. Any reliance
or action taken based on the information, materials and techniques described are the responsibility of the user. Readers are advised to consult
appropriate professional resources to determine what is safe and suitable in their particular case. CMHC assumes no responsibility for any
consequence arising from use of the information, materials and techniques described.