London is the latest city to partner with Canada’s housing agency to use pre-approved housing plans that are designed to accelerate the development of affordable homes.

In late June, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said the government of the Southern Ontario city endorsed the Housing Design Catalogue, the Crown corporation’s library of over 50 drawings for row homes, townhomes, multiplexes and accessory dwelling units. The designs are near-permit-ready.

The city is pre-reviewing the catalogue’s designs to support streamlined approvals, CMHC said, with the goal of making it easier for builders and homeowners to plan their projects.

London is supporting the designs for two kinds of accessory dwelling units, two types of stacked townhomes, two fourplexes and one sixplex.

“By making it easier to access high-quality, ready-to-adapt designs, we're supporting faster approvals and more housing options across our city,” Josh Morgan, the mayor of London, said in a release.

There are over 20 cities that have partnered with CMHC to implement the Housing Design Catalogue. Some are the biggest cities in Canada, such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga and Ottawa.

Partnership adds to existing CMHC collaborations

Joining forces with CMHC on the catalogue complements existing initiatives with the Crown agency. London has support from CMHC’s Housing Accelerator Fund, a program that distributes money to local governments if they support measures to build more housing and hasten development approvals.

Additionally, London allows up to four homes on one property in existing neighbourhoods, which the city said aligns with becoming a local partner on the Housing Design Catalogue.

Other cities became local partners with CMHC this year to use the design catalogue. Those were: St. Thomas, Ont.; Thunder Bay, Ont.; Moncton, N.B.; Bathurst, N.B.; North Grenville, Ont.; Belleville, Ont.; and Squamish, B.C.

Squamish noted its support for standardized housing designs in a separate announcement. One initiative it held was hosting a Multiplex Design Competition in 2024, where the winning designs were tailored to local conditions, neighbourhood context and flood construction levels.

Squamish is promoting three Housing Design Catalogue designs: one duplex and two kinds of fourplexes.

“By pre-reviewing and promoting three designs in the Housing Design Catalogue, we aim to take some of the guess work out of planning, providing a smoother path to creative housing solutions,” Armand Hurford, the mayor of the District of Squamish, said in the release promoting its partnership with CMHC.

How the catalogue works

The catalogue is intended to replace CMHC’s collection designs developed between the 1940s and 1970s to house returning World War II veterans.

It is meant to address “the issue of housing supply by providing a scalable and repeatable . . . good-quality housing design,” Janna Levitt, the co-founder of LGA Architectural Partners, said in an interview with RENX Homes in 2025. LGA was the lead architectural firm for the catalogue, which involved an additional six peers of the Toronto-based company.

Compared to the first catalogue with its focus on single-family homes, the newer version emphasizes infill multifamily offerings. Sizes range from under 800 square feet for the row homes and townhomes to over 4,100 square feet for the largest buildings.

The technical design packages for the catalogue were launched in October 2025, with architectural and engineering drawings, energy reporting documents and templates, and building performance reports included. Regional construction cost summaries and guidance on climate resilience and material selection are now available as well, CMHC said.