Billionaire Peter Gilgan says his prefab lab will build a record 3,000 units a year

Last week, billionaire developer Peter Gilgan, CEO of Mattamy Homes, made a juicy promise to would-be homebuyers: in 2026, his company will revive its defunct venture Stelumar to open a prefabricated-home factory that will pump out 3,000 housing units per year.

This may sound familiar. In the late ’90s, Gilgan launched Stelumar in Milton with a focus on single-family detached houses in the suburbs. The start-up quietly folded after a short 10 years due to financial woes.

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Prefabricated or modular homes are residences crafted in a factory and then assembled on-site. The process is cheaper, faster and better for the environment than traditional construction. Assembly is also safer and more predictable for workers, who no longer need to pack up when a polar vortex rolls in. But, 30 years ago, the novel tech was just that—novel—and there were few early adopters to invest in the idea and thereby subsidize everyday homebuyers.

This time around, the stars and spreadsheets have aligned, and the building tech has come a long way. The reimagined Stelumar will target urban density and focus on six-storey mid-rise buildings, each with about 150 units. Once modular components are on-site, Gilgan suggests that it will take no more than six months to fit the structure together like Lego—a fraction of the typical three-year turnaround. Stelumar is also dangling reassurances of substantial savings for consumers, as federal estimates suggest prefab homes can cut construction costs by about 20 per cent.

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Gilgan’s venture is politically timely. During his federal election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged $26 billion in loans and $1 billion in equity financing to prefab builders to help reach his national goal of 500,000 new homes per year. Gilgan claims that his project had been in the works long before Carney came along, and while Stelumar may seek federal funding, right now it’s principally funded by its parent company, Mattamy Homes.