Housing expert says people don't need 'McMansions'

A housing expert told Fredericton city council people have to start "thinking small" about houses.

Avi Freeman, an architecture professor at McGill University, spoke on Monday night about the need to build affordable housing in the city, and said that many people wrongly believe they need a big house and a big garage.

"This became the barrier to the construction of afforable housing, this requirement that we would build big, and people's expectations that their first home needs to be a McMansion," he said. "We need to shift this attitude and show that other homes can be constructed, those that will enable young people to become home owners."

Freeman presented six different plans for low-cost housing projects in the city. He said some of the units could cost as little as $50,000.

He also said that low-cost housing need not drive down real estate prices in a neighbourhood. This is one of the concerns that often kill such initiatives, he said.

"The reaction of neigbours can prevent projects from being built," he said. "In the past few years, it was demonstrated that [it] need not lower the value of your property."