Co-operative Housing Development Program

Co-operative housing is a well-documented success story. For over 50 years, co-ops have provided good quality, affordable housing owned and managed by the community members who live there.

The Co-operative Housing Development Program will provide $1.5 billion in funding, in the form of forgivable and low-interest repayable loans, to support the development of thousands of affordable rental co-operative housing units in Canada.

New co-ops built through the Co-op Housing Development Program will result in inclusive, strong communities that meet the needs of today and anticipate the needs of tomorrow. Co-op units created under the program will be available for a minimum of 20 years at a lower rental rate compared to newly constructed purpose-built rental units. These projects will also foster a sense of security, dignity, agency and belonging to community.

Visit Co-op Housing Development Program to apply, or for more information, you can download the applicant guide and program highlight sheet. The current application intake window is July 15 to September 15, 2024.

CMHC Co-operative Housing Development Program Funding:

• CMHC will fund up to 100% of eligible costs
• Funding will be committed over 4 years starting in 2024-25
• The program uses a combination of forgivable and repayable loans
• Forgivable loans will be the lesser amount of:
  • One-third of the total contract amount, or
  • The amount needed for the project to be financially viable

Co-op Housing Development Program loan structure:

Funding is a combination of both repayable and forgivable loans. CMHC will fund up to 100% of the eligible soft and hard project costs (repayable and forgivable combined).

Repayable loans:

• Up to two-thirds of project costs are available as repayable loans to fund projects
• Repayable loans will be low-interest and can be amortized up to 50 years
• Proponents have a 10-year term with the option to renew for a second 10-year term

Forgivable loans:

• Up to one-third of project costs are available as forgivable loans when combined with repayable loans
• Will be forgiven over 20 years and forgiveness is earned annually

Benefits:

Forgivable loans and low-interest repayable loans to build rental co-operative housing to support a new generation of non-profit co-operative housing

Property type:

• New construction of residential development
• Conversion of nonresidential to residential
• Property type may include multi-unit, stacked townhouses, semi-detached buildings
• Properties must be rental co-operative housing

Eligible applicants:

• New and existing non-profit housing co-operatives:
  • As stand-alone co-operatives or in partnership with another non-profit (for example land trusts
  • Student housing co-operatives
  • Senior's housing co-operatives
  • Indigenous co-operatives, including those in partnership with Indigenous governments and organizations – both on and off reserve
• Land Trusts

Minimum number of units:

• Large urban centres (CMAs or populations over 100,000): 75 unit minimum
• Small and Medium urban centres (CAs or populations of 10,000 to 99,999): 30 unit minimum
• Rural and Remote, Northern, and Indigenous: 5 unit minimum

Affordability requirement:

Rents for 100% of the units must at or below 110% of the median market rent of post-2000 builds in the subject area, for a minimum of 20 years

Energy efficiency requirement:

Must achieve Step 2 of the 2020 NECB or Step 3 of the 2020 NBC

Accessibility requirement:

• Minimum 20% of all units must meet or exceed accessibility standards with access to the project and its common areas being barrier-free, or
• Full universal design throughout the entire project