More than 140,000 homes will need to be built in Saskatchewan in the next eight years to keep pace with the number of people living in the province and avoid a housing shortage.

It’s part of a housing deficit determined by a new group within the Saskatchewan housing industry.

Habitat for Humanity, the Saskatchewan Landlord Association, the Regina and Saskatoon home builders associations and the Saskatchewan Realtors Association make up the new Saskatchewan Housing Continuum Network. The groups came together over concerns for the province’s current real estate outlook.

Saskatchewan Realtors Association CEO Chris Guérette said the pandemic keeping people at home showed how important our homes really are.

“There’s a lot of unknown moving forward, but at the end of the day, people are still going to need to live somewhere,” she said.

Between 95,500 and 141,500 homes will need to be built, as more than 200,000 new people move into Saskatchewan between now and 2030, the continuum concluded.

Now that the network has projected the deficit, the members hope to begin developing policy suggestions to take action and move forward on increasing housing in Saskatchewan.

Currently, Guérette reported, Saskatchewan is in the top four provinces for affordability in Canada. That’s not something she wants to see compromised as housing volume needs are met in the province.

“It’s always a supply and demand issue,” Guérette said. “We have to balance that very, very well.”