# A new study on missing middle building codes

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2026-07-25

missing middle, housing, development, building codes

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We talk a lot around here about the surprising difficulty of building small-scale apartment buildings. [Here's a post](https://brandondonnelly.com/toward-more-fine-grained-developmenthttps://brandondonnelly.com/toward-more-fine-grained-development) from earlier this year where I outlined a working list of policies, codes, and approaches that would need to change in order to unlock more of this housing type.

But my list was just that — a list — and the reality is that each individual item can be shockingly complex. To that end, [here's a recent study](https://neptis.org/research/https://neptis.org/research/), published by the Neptis Foundation, called "Ontario Building Code Missing Middle Study: Bridging the gap between houses and high-rises."

The authors are Conrad Speckert of Semibold Solutions (who has appeared on this blog in the past) and Jack Keays of Vortex Fire Consulting, and I encourage you to [download a free copy](https://neptis.cdn.prismic.io/neptis/L1DmKJpG5MCdKWeM_OBCMissingMiddleStudy2026-bookmarks-.pdf). I haven't gone through it yet, but I will, because we are actively working on projects at this exact scale.

Enjoy the weekend.

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_Cover photo by_ [_Danish Prakash_](https://unsplash.com/@danishprakash?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/a-new-study-on-missing-middle-building-codes)*