Surplus Rail Land for Housing Now

On July 30, 2025, the UK government announced an initiative to develop 40,000 new homes.  Launched as Platform4, the national development company is tasked with unlocking 40,000 new homes on surplus public railway lands. These brownfield rail yards will become vibrant communities showing how strategic reuse of public land can tackle the housing shortages.

But what about Canada?

Information on surplus railway lands in Canada remains limited. Given the strategic location of many of these underused sites—often adjacent to existing transit infrastructure—Canada has a unique opportunity to explore a brownfield-first approach to housing development on surplus rail lands.

The UK has recently adopted a new model that brings together multiple agencies under a single real estate delivery framework, with profits reinvested into public transit. This model raises an interesting question: could a coordinated, Canada-wide strategy help unlock the potential of our own surplus rail lands for housing and community development?

Read more on Platform4 here