Industry Profile: Bob Finnigan

Bob Finnigan is one busy man. Not only is he the head of the Ontario Home Builders Association, he is also the Chief Operating Officer at Heathwood Homes.  Recently he took time out of his busy schedule to discuss the role of the OHBA, what he views as issues in the housing industry, and what’s new at Heathwood Homes.

NewInHomes.com (NIH): Tell us a little about the Ontario Home Builders Association.

Bob Finnigan: The OHBA is the voice of its 4000 members. The OMHA is made up of 29 local associations, from Sarnia to Wawa to Thunder Bay. Some of the larger locals members would be BILD in the Greater Toronto Area and the Ottawa Home Builders Association, so all local builders join automatically through there local association.  We are the voice of the building industry and facilitate changes in the industry.

NIH: What are some issues effecting home owners moving forward?

Bob Finnigan: The number one issue from the top down is affordability. It is our responsibility as an association to make sure that all facets of home building - be it the building code or taxes - to examine any changes to the costs, the reason for them, and lobby and explain why those changes should not occur. Our end goal it so make the environment for the homebuyers and the home builder as efficient as possible, to keep costs at a minimum"

NIH: What are some of the “Wins” you have had over the past few years at the OHBA?

Bob Finnigan: We had a couple of strong wins in the past 24 months, the first and most notable being the HST.  

When the HST was initially introduced in March of 2009, it was very different then the one we have now, at least in regards to the home building industry. How the province wanted to charge HST on new homes was very different from what we see today. That was three - four months of hard lobbying from the home building industry and we where literally changed millions of dollars for homeowners across Ontario.

Another big win we had in recent years was in regards to affordable housing, and it goes back to my predecessor James Baseley. We have been challenging a component in their affordable housing plan called inclusionary zoning

Our concern with this was that the affordability would have been subsidized by the other residents who where buying at the development. We have always argued that if one buyer is subsidizing the cost of another, the cost of the first home owner's house has gone up. So for the benefit of very few affordable units produced, the government was planning on taxing every other owner, and making the cost of owning go up, which did not make sense to us."

NewInHomes: How did you fight this?

Bob Finnigan: "We took that message to Queens Park and our local MP's, and started discussing secondary suites. Our thoughts where that If the province is running a huge deficit and its agreed we should not be subsidizing the housing for everyone, why don’t we move forward with secondary suites"

NIH: What are secondary suites?

Bob Finnigan: Secondary Suites is a basement apartment or another apartment within a home, be it new or used.  You have a single family house and have the basement finished that is not be allowed. In Mississauga and Barrie for example, you actually sign an affidavit stating that you will not do that.

NewInHomes: What are the issues with Secondary Suites?

Bob Finnigan: So the theory is, who are going to live in these units? How will it affect the infrastructure and schools? The reality is, it has not been an issue.  Alot of times it provides the opportunity for a young family to get started. They cannot afford a home, but they can move into mom and dad’s basement and save their money. The positive is that its happening anyway in the underground economy, and when its in the underground economy there are no permits issued, no one is taking into account the safety issues like windows and smoke detectors and quality of workmanship. So if you have secondary suites with permits and inspectors, you know your getting first quality construction, its all above board with quality builders, so there is a ton of benefits as to why secondary suites are good.

NIH: How are your results so far?

Bob Finnigan: They came out this fall and inclusionary zoning was not included. So that is a victory for us.  We are working on a process to bring in secondary suites into effect very soon

NIH: Moving on a different topic, tell us about your role at Heathwood Homes

Bob Finnigan: My role with Heathwood Homes is as Chief Operating Officer. My primary role is sales and marketing, as well as the feasibility of new sites. It keeps me quite busy! I have a long background in marketing, and have a degree in geography and special analysis. So with my formal training is in feasibility studies and land issues, it’s really up my alley and what I went to school for.

NIH: Whats coming up for 2011?

Bob Finnigan: We view 2011 is a continuation of 2010. We do have high hopes for a big site more towards the end of the year, so well have to see how that goes.

What we are most excited about this year is in our Richmond Hill development where will be 

very shortly opening up our green home.

We worked in conjunction with the city of Richmond Hill to build a model home that would incorporate not only energy star compliance, but a whole host of environmental options. It’s a home that will be much more energy efficient then an energy star home.

NIH: Tell us a bit more about the program”

Bob Finnigan: The beauty of it is we will be working with Ryerson University to report just how efficient home like this would be in comparison to an Energy Star home. We have 50 solar panels on the roof for energy. We have 2 other solar panels that we have on the roof that will be used for water.  

We have a grey water recovery system in the house, so all the water that is used in the shower and wash will be funned to the recovery tank, where the water will be reused in the toilets. That alone should see a 30-40 percent reduction in the water that we use.

What do you hope to learn?

Ryerson will monitor the house and calculate the savings. We know the costs associated with a house like this, so we can do a quick cost benefit analysis. The motoring system that we have will be able to isolate each individual unit, and find out how much each appliance draws, from a hair dryer to a stove.  We are building an identical house with the same size and layout, and monitor the same things. Once the green house is sold, we will monitor both homes and have a very good idea of energy usage, simply by having both families in their homes. 

NIH would like to thank Mr. Finnigan for taking the time out of his schedule to talk with us about the Ontario Home Builders Association and Heathwood Homes, and look forward to his contributions to the housing industry in 2011.