In October 2025, CMHC released a catalogue of 50 home designs, each accommodating between 1 and 6 residences, to help municipalities, builders, and homeowners construct more homes, faster. The initiative supports gentle density and infill development.
The Housing Design Catalogue includes a range of designs for different housing types and site conditions in each of the 7 regions, and the designs were developed by local architects and engineers to comply with regional building codes.
Passive House Canada was recently invited to comment on the Catalogue in an article by Daily Commercial News, a leading construction publication. While the current designs don’t yet include high-performance homes, we recognize the effort behind this initiative and encourage CMHC to incorporate such options in future updates.
We would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with CMHC and other partners to show that high performance can go hand-in-hand with affordability, scalability, and speed.
The catalogue represents a positive and constructive step toward increasing housing availability. By simplifying approvals and encouraging gentle density – 2-6-unit homes that fit well within existing neighbourhoods – it helps municipalities and homeowners build more quickly and with less friction.
However, availability doesn’t need to come at the expense of performance. The most livable, affordable homes in the long term are those that stay comfortable during extreme heat or wildfire smoke, cost less to operate, and require fewer repairs. Existing Tier 4 and Tier 5 homes already show that such outcomes are within reach.
Ultimately, improving how we build is not solely a government project. It’s a collective effort among policymakers, industry professionals, and the public. If we can align ambition with practicality – building high-performance homes at scale – Canada can meet its housing and climate goals together.
Progress deserves recognition. The catalogue moves us forward in a complex space with many stakeholders and competing priorities. The next step is to build confidence that better performance and faster, more affordable construction are not opposing goals; they’re complementary ones.
