Housing and Modular Construction in the Centre-du-Québec: The 2026 Picture

In short — The Centre-du-Québec landed two of the SHQ's first eleven highly prefabricated housing projects: the Faubourg des Prés in Princeville (36 units) and a 24-unit building in Saint-Léonard-d'Aston, both announced on August 22, 2025 with delivery targeted for summer 2026. Two typical small towns — exactly the kind of place major developers ignore — are becoming the regional test bench of the housing factory. Meanwhile, Drummondville and Victoriaville are lining up their own affordable builds.

The housing situation in the region

The Centre-du-Québec stacks up the pressures typical of manufacturing regions. In Drummondville, the local vacancy rate was running below 1% when the Le Sentier project launched, according to Radio-Canada — a market where finding a unit is an obstacle course. The region's mid-sized towns, from Plessisville to Nicolet by way of Bécancour, make do with a thin rental stock, where a few dozen missing units are enough to block local hiring.

The region also shares a sad record: the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec was the hardest hit in Quebec by private seniors' residence closures in 2025, with 11 closures and 188 residents displaced according to the AQRP's review. Every RPA that closes in a small town means seniors torn from their community — an issue we cover in a feature on the modular seniors' residence.

Why don't conventional developers fill these needs? Because projects of 20 or 30 units in towns of 5,000 to 25,000 residents do not justify their mobilization costs. We take that mechanism apart in our feature on the housing crisis and modular construction.

Recent projects and announcements

On August 22, 2025, the SHQ announced the 11 winners of its first call for highly prefabricated multi-unit housing: 336 units in total, entrusted to five consortiums backed by Quebec factories (Bonneville, RCM Modulaire, Fabrik, Locusi, RG Solution). Two of those eleven projects are in the Centre-du-Québec:

• Princeville — Faubourg des Prés, 36 units;
• Saint-Léonard-d'Aston — 24 units, in a municipality of about 2,500 residents.

These are two textbook cases: small towns that get a complete multi-unit building in one stroke, in the initiative's standardized format (2 to 3 storeys, studios and one- or two-bedroom units), with delivery targeted as early as summer 2026.

Conventional builds are advancing in parallel. In Drummondville, Le Sentier adds 84 affordable units (about $29 million, a Quebec-City-Desjardins partnership), with construction launched in 2025. In Victoriaville, the Initiative Logement abordable Desjardins will fund nearly 100 social and affordable units, first tenants expected in fall 2026, with rents aligned with the SHQ's median grid; the Maison de chambres Albert — a residence converted into eight rooms — has been welcoming tenants since January 2025.

On the regulatory side, Victoriaville and Nicolet are among the first Quebec municipalities to have authorized accessory dwelling units (ADUs) by simple bylaw, a possibility opened by Bill 31. A second SHQ call for prefabricated projects (225 units) was launched in September 2025 — the total selected had reached 566 units by mid-2026.

What modular can change here

Princeville and Saint-Léonard-d'Aston are worth more than an announcement: they demonstrate the model. No major developer would have mounted a conventional 24-unit build in a municipality of 2,500 residents — short season, scarce labour, costly mobilization. A building manufactured in a factory, delivered and set in a few days, gets around all three obstacles at once (see our feature on the modular multiplex).

The independent data confirms the advantage: project timelines cut by 20 to 50% according to McKinsey, deliveries 25 to 30% faster measured across more than 50 multi-family buildings by a field study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. In Montreal, Projet Acadie from the same SHQ program was installed in under 12 months, permits included — the benchmark timeline the region's winners can aim for. On costs, let's be honest: direct savings range from 0 to 20% depending on market and scale. The reliable gain is time.

For the region's other towns — Plessisville, Nicolet, Bécancour and their neighbours — the playbook is known: a serviced lot, compatible zoning, a project sponsor ready to apply at the next call. Our guide for municipalities details every step. And for gentle densification, the ADU bylaws of Victoriaville and Nicolet open the door to factory-built accessory units — see our feature on the modular tiny home and ADU.

The programs that apply

• SHQ initiative for highly prefabricated multi-unit housing: the region has proven twice that it knows how to win these calls. The next rounds rest on the $1.8-billion Canada-Quebec agreement (FACL).
• PHAQ (Programme d'habitation abordable Québec): the SHQ's flagship program, open to non-profits, co-operatives, housing offices and private developers. The 2026-2027 Quebec budget funds a new round of 1,000 affordable units — the first since 2023.
• Philanthropic and financial partnerships: the Initiative Logement abordable Desjardins, demonstrated in Victoriaville, shows that a Quebec-municipality-financial-institution package can carry a hundred units in a mid-sized town.
• CMHC — mortgage loan insurance extended to modular (May 2026): after a pilot of more than 800 units, modular multi-unit housing is insurable across all CMHC products, including APH Select.

For the detailed financing structure of a non-profit or co-operative project, see our guide to funding affordable modular housing.

Sources: Gouvernement du Québec (SHQ), Radio-Canada, AQRP, Écohabitation, CMHC. Article written by Jeremy Soares. Last updated: July 2, 2026.