At the beginning of this month, between Sep 2 and Sep 4, the research company Nanos conducted a random survey asking Canadians about their views on housing. The survey reached 1,044 adults and you may find the results interesting:

• Nationally, three in five Canadians "support" or "somewhat support" decreasing the number of immigrants coming into Canada until housing becomes more affordable. (The feds plan to welcome 500,000 immigrants per year by 2025.)

• The provinces that are the most in support of reduced immigration are the Prairies (65%), and the province with the lowest support is BC (52%).

• 82% of Canadians are "opposed" or "somewhat opposed" to building new housing on land currently set aside as green space. Of this group, 64% responded with "opposed".

• 55% of Canadians "support" or "somewhat support" giving tax incentives to private developers to build new rental housing. The highest support for this is in BC (61%), Quebec (60%), and among Canadians 55 or older (55%).

• However, this support flips when Canadians are asked about giving tax incentives to private developers to build for-sale housing. 58% of Canadians are "opposed" or "somewhat opposed" to doing this.

These last two points took me a second to decipher, because the wording in the article is "new rental units" and "new homes." Naturally, I initially read these two things as being the same thing. New rentals are new homes. So what are they trying to say here?

My assumption (in the above) is that it's a housing bias coming through and that a "new home" equals a for-sale low-rise house. Hmm. We really need to be more mindful of the semantics in our housing vocabulary.

Here are the results of a Global Consumer Survey that was conducted in Canada this year (2019) and that asked respondents whether or not they own a smart home device. That is, a device that can be controlled via a smartphone / internet connection.

Even with all of the concerns around privacy, virtual assistants (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home) appear to be the most popular device with Canadians. Next are connected speakers and smart thermostats.

The vast majority of respondents (68%) stated that they don't own any smart home device. However, if you look at the trend lines for Canadian household penetration in the "smart home market," this is naturally changing:

Curiously, there appears to be a household penetration rate spread between Canada and the US, with the US exhibiting meaningfully higher numbers. Here is the US chart:

Based on these charts, the lowest penetration rate appears to be for "energy management" devices, which would include anything that helps households reduce energy consumption. The rates are the lowest in the case of both Canada and the US.

This is a bit unfortunate given that energy management is an important one. But it's also one that isn't best addressed with only a few smart devices. It should involve a more holistic approach to the way in which we design and build homes.

All charts and data taken from Statista.

At the beginning of this month, between Sep 2 and Sep 4, the research company Nanos conducted a random survey asking Canadians about their views on housing. The survey reached 1,044 adults and you may find the results interesting:

• Nationally, three in five Canadians "support" or "somewhat support" decreasing the number of immigrants coming into Canada until housing becomes more affordable. (The feds plan to welcome 500,000 immigrants per year by 2025.)

• The provinces that are the most in support of reduced immigration are the Prairies (65%), and the province with the lowest support is BC (52%).

• 82% of Canadians are "opposed" or "somewhat opposed" to building new housing on land currently set aside as green space. Of this group, 64% responded with "opposed".

• 55% of Canadians "support" or "somewhat support" giving tax incentives to private developers to build new rental housing. The highest support for this is in BC (61%), Quebec (60%), and among Canadians 55 or older (55%).

• However, this support flips when Canadians are asked about giving tax incentives to private developers to build for-sale housing. 58% of Canadians are "opposed" or "somewhat opposed" to doing this.

These last two points took me a second to decipher, because the wording in the article is "new rental units" and "new homes." Naturally, I initially read these two things as being the same thing. New rentals are new homes. So what are they trying to say here?

My assumption (in the above) is that it's a housing bias coming through and that a "new home" equals a for-sale low-rise house. Hmm. We really need to be more mindful of the semantics in our housing vocabulary.

Here are the results of a Global Consumer Survey that was conducted in Canada this year (2019) and that asked respondents whether or not they own a smart home device. That is, a device that can be controlled via a smartphone / internet connection.

Even with all of the concerns around privacy, virtual assistants (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home) appear to be the most popular device with Canadians. Next are connected speakers and smart thermostats.

The vast majority of respondents (68%) stated that they don't own any smart home device. However, if you look at the trend lines for Canadian household penetration in the "smart home market," this is naturally changing:

Curiously, there appears to be a household penetration rate spread between Canada and the US, with the US exhibiting meaningfully higher numbers. Here is the US chart:

Based on these charts, the lowest penetration rate appears to be for "energy management" devices, which would include anything that helps households reduce energy consumption. The rates are the lowest in the case of both Canada and the US.

This is a bit unfortunate given that energy management is an important one. But it's also one that isn't best addressed with only a few smart devices. It should involve a more holistic approach to the way in which we design and build homes.

All charts and data taken from Statista.