Why is this new house priced at $600K? A northern Ontario developer breaks it down

Sam Biasucci walks around the brand new three-bedroom house pointing to en suite bathrooms and tall basement ceilings like a real estate agent.

But he actually owns the company— Sault Ste. Marie-based SalDan Developments— that built this home in the Hanmer area of Greater Sudbury that's about to be listed for $600,000

"That's a lot of money. Many two-income families will struggle to have that," said Biasucci, adding "that's as aggressive as we can possibly get" in keeping the price affordable.

He says that of that $600,000, his company will get around $30,000 in profit. 

"People think builders make out like bandits and that's not the case," he said.

"If you look at the risk that it takes and the longevity that it takes to take a raw piece of land to having keys for a house, sometimes I wonder if there's a better way to make a living."

Biasucci says about $70,000 of that sale price goes to taxes and other government fees, which he says could be cutback so more first-time home buyers can afford to get into the market.

But he says he doesn't like to criticize governments, because there are "two horrible jobs in Canada, one is wearing a uniform, the other one is being a politician."

"Housing crisis has been difficult to predict, difficult to handle and difficult to explain," said Biasucci, who has been building homes across northern Ontario for 45 years.

"Because when you look at the pent-up demand and when you look at how many housing units we need immediately, we're going the wrong way."

He says a housing lot goes for about $160,000 and building the actual house runs about $400,000; costs that have climbed steadily in the past few years as "the pandemic was the best excuse I've seen in 45 years to raise the prices and unfortunately we all know income hasn't kept up."

The flipside of that, Biasucci says, is that he's making sure the construction workers he hires make enough money to afford the houses they are building.

"We want to make sure the people who work for us, earn a decent living or the whole affordability thing goes down the tubes," he said. 

"We're not the only ones being responsible with wages, so are our suppliers."

Biasucci says he is encouraged by what he's now hearing from politicians trying to tackle the cost of housing and feels he can now see a  "light at the end of the tunnel."