title: Building Affordable Rental Housing with Private Developers - The Case of Calgary and Edmonton
Creators: name: Beswick, Carol-Ann
Publisher: name: Graduate Studies
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Affordable Rental Housing
subject: Transit-Oriented Developments
subject: Private Developers
subject: Multi-Sector Partnerships
subject: Satisficing
subject: Housing Policy
subject: Mixed-Market Housing
subject: Urban and Regional Planning
subject: FOS: Social and economic geography

description: Developing affordable rental housing in transit-oriented developments (TODs) reduces household costs and promotes the equitable inclusion of low-income groups in Canadian cities. While this is a priority strategy to address the housing crisis, private developers have limited engagement in affordable rental housing provision due to high costs and risks. This qualitative research provides a framework for evaluation of a multi-sector partnership model that evaluates the interaction of five factors - economic, regulatory, TOD structural, advocacy and institutional - multi-sector partnerships. Simon’s theory of satisficing is used to establish a Developer Influence Matrix (DIM) of decision-making by private developers in these partnerships, considering efficiency, profit, and risk management criteria. The DIM measures the influence of the five factors on the decision-making of the private developer and potential success for a project. In essence, private developers are motivated by profit, the return on investment and ability to manage risks, and if that is achievable through a combination of housing policy instruments and an enabling environment the decision to participate increases. TODs are a complex real estate development area, with high risks and high costs affecting profits. This comparative analysis of six case study projects in Calgary and Edmonton, used ethnographic methods, focus groups and interviews. Calgary and Edmonton have limited policy tools available to entice multi-sector partnerships and have resulted in limited responses, which was a challenge for this exploratory research. A major finding was that multi-sector partnerships brought economic support through public grants, which was a key incentive for the private developers. In addition, regulatory support through fast-tracking applications with designated staff, parking relaxations, and advocacy, reduced some risks and established a satisficing environment for private developers. The study found that mixed-market housing models and operating subsidies made projects viable and sustainable, and that private developers prefer below-market affordable rental housing, over other types of affordable rental housing. Multi-sector partnerships positively influenced the other factors and created satisfactory conditions and profits for effective involvement by private developers, however, additional tools could cultivate multi-sector partnerships. The study concludes with recommendations to incentivises private developers to participate in partnerships to deliver affordable rental housing at TODs. The contribution of the DIM provides a simple checklist that municipalities can use to measure the level of influence an incentive-based approach has with attracting private developers to partner and increase the supply of below-market affordable rental housing at TODs.