Saskatchewan in need of nearly 142,000 new homes by 2030

'All the costs are going up, interest rates, etc.,' said Guérette. 'There’s a lot of unknowns but at the end of the day, people are still going to need to live somewhere.'

More than 141,000 houses will need to be built in the next eight years to meet the projected population increase in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Housing Continuum Network announced the projected total of 141,500 homes would be needed by 2030, based off the per capita housing average from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) as well as the current average of housing units in Saskatchewan.

“We wanted to quantify exactly what we require as a province to remain competitive and to ensure our growth is very well planned and that we can look into the future with some comfort,” said Saskatchewan Realtors Association CEO Chris Guérette.

“If we wanted to keep the same ratio as we have today, so the same amount of units per 1,000 people, and many would argue that isn’t sufficient, but if we were to maintain that, we would have to build 95,000 units.”

And if the number seems like a lot, it seems even bigger when you look at the last 30 years in Saskatchewan.

“Over the past 30 years, we have built just over 98,000 units,” said Guérette. “So we have to squish in roughly the same amount of units in a period of eight years, which is significant for us.”

With inventory going down across the province, the continuum is concerned about the future of Saskatchewan housing, especially the costs.

“All the costs are going up, interest rates, etc.,” said Guérette. “There’s a lot of unknowns but at the end of the day, people are still going to need to live somewhere.”