Housing and Modular Construction in the Mauricie: The 2026 Picture

In short — The Mauricie is the acknowledged symbol of Quebec's housing crisis: in 2024, the Housing Minister chose Trois-Rivières — then the city with the worst vacancy rate in Canada — to unveil the Quebec Housing Strategy. Two years later, the Trois-Rivières rate has climbed back to about 2.9% and some 1,705 units were built there in 2025. But the region holds another, less glorious record: it is the hardest hit in Quebec by seniors' residence closures. Here is where modular fits into that contrasted picture.

The housing situation in the region

The ground covered can be measured in percentage points. The vacancy rate in Trois-Rivières went from about 0.4% in 2023 — the low that earned the city its unenviable title — to about 1% in 2024, then to about 2.9% in 2025, according to figures reported by InfoMauricie. Roughly 1,705 new units were built there in 2025. The easing is real, but it follows the provincial pattern: mostly expensive new units, while the affordable segment remains in shortage — the mechanism we take apart in our feature on the housing crisis and modular construction.

The regional blind spot is seniors. The CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec was the hardest hit in Quebec by private seniors' residence closures in 2025: 11 closures, 188 residents displaced, according to the AQRP's review. In towns like Louiseville or La Tuque, an RPA closure often has no local fallback.

The growing municipalities of the Trois-Rivières fringe — think Saint-Boniface — live the classic challenge of communities of 5,000 residents and under: demand, but no developer for a project of 20 or 30 units.

Recent projects and announcements

The most structured regional answer comes from Mission Unitaînés, the organization that builds standardized 100-unit affordable buildings for seniors. In Shawinigan, its six-storey building — 74 one-bedroom units, 15 studios and 11 two-bedroom units — is due to be ready in spring 2026, according to Radio-Canada. A twin building is expected in Trois-Rivières on the same horizon, according to InfoMauricie. It is a direct, at-scale response to the RPA closures.

Still in Trois-Rivières, 120 affordable units are being added in the Cap-de-la-Madeleine sector (phase 1 delivered in March 2025, phase 2 a year later), and the City used an original fiscal lever: a 14-year tax credit that allowed the non-profit Habitations populaires du Québec to acquire a 112-unit portfolio and pull it out of the speculative market, according to Radio-Canada. The city is also among the first in Quebec to have authorized accessory dwelling units (ADUs) by simple bylaw.

An honest observation is also in order: in the SHQ's first call for highly prefabricated housing, whose 11 winners (336 units) were announced on August 22, 2025, no project from the Mauricie was selected — the neighbouring Centre-du-Québec landed two. A second call for 225 units was launched in September 2025, bringing the total selected to 566 prefabricated units by mid-2026.

What modular can change here

The Mauricie illustrates two modular use cases better than any other region. The first is replacing the lost RPAs. The Unitaînés model — the same 100-unit building repeated from town to town — already rests on standardization; factory fabrication pushes that logic one notch further, with project timelines cut by 20 to 50% according to McKinsey and deliveries 25 to 30% faster measured by a field study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. For a small town that has just lost its residence, every month counts — we go deeper into this angle in our feature on the modular seniors' residence.

The second is small-town multi-unit housing. Louiseville, La Tuque or Saint-Boniface are exactly in the range targeted by the SHQ's standardized 24- and 36-unit buildings — enough need to fill the building, not enough volume for a conventional build (see our feature on the modular multiplex). Municipalities that want to position themselves for the next calls will find the step-by-step in our guide for municipalities. And Trois-Rivières' ADU bylaw already opens the door to gentle densification with factory-built units — see our feature on the modular tiny home and ADU.

Let's stay clear-eyed: modular's direct savings range from 0 to 20% depending on market and scale. The robust, documented gain is time and schedule predictability.

The programs that apply

• SHQ initiative for highly prefabricated multi-unit housing: 500 units in the first call, 225 in the second, funded by the $1.8-billion Canada-Quebec agreement (FACL). No Mauricie winner to date — the next calls are the opportunity to seize.
• 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.
• Municipal levers: Trois-Rivières demonstrated the long-term tax credit (14 years) as a tool to pull units out of the speculative market, and its ADU bylaw enables gentle densification.
• 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, co-operative or housing-office project, see our guide to funding affordable modular housing.

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