Apartment condo construction boosts multi-family starts
CMHC forecasts rise in Calgary-area starts this year, but decline in 2018
New construction of multi-family development in the Calgary area picked up last month, as the city’s northwest quadrant continued its surge over activity from last year.
Shovels turned for 568 multifamily units — which includes apartments, townhomes and duplexes — in the Calgary census metropolitan area in October, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. This marks a 48 per cent lift over the 293 that broke ground year over year.
The Calgary census metropolitan area includes work in nearby cities and towns, such as Airdrie, Chestermere and Cochrane.
Last month’s improvement was driven by the apartment segment, rising to 372 starts from 76 a year earlier. Meanwhile, townhome starts were down to 92 from 109, and duplexes eased to 104 from 108.
“The trend we’re seeing for the multi-family segment is the pace of activity is starting to slow down,” says Richard Cho, CMHC’s principal of market analysis. “We had seen it increase in the first part of the year but since then it has started to moderate.
“I think inventory levels are having an impact on the new projects breaking ground. With that, we’re still forecasting a rise in multi- family starts ( for the Calgary area) this year but as we get into 2018 we’re forecasting a decline.”
For starts on both apartments and duplexes, the northwest end of Calgary led the way. The quadrant’s 22 duplex starts edged southwest Calgary with 20. But with apartments, northwest Cal- gary posted a wider lead. It had 184 starts — compared to the next most active area, southwest Calgary — with 77.
Townhome starts were more evenly dispersed with 19 in northeast Calgary and 18 each on the southeast and northwest ends of Calgary.
Year to date, northwest Calgary has paced all three multi-family segments in new construction, with 270 duplex starts, 399 townhomes, and 583 apartments.
The most decisive lead came from duplexes, where it passes the next most active area, northeast Calgary, by 114 starts.
“In the northwest, we’re still seeing communities that are relatively new and building new projects,” says Cho.
Among the new communities in the northwest are Carrington, Nolan Hill, Sage Hill, Symons Gate and Evanston.
Northwest Calgary also notched the highest inventory of both duplexes and townhomes under construction with 204 and 334, respectively. But when it came to apartments, the lead went to downtown Calgary with 1,295 units under construction followed by the Beltline district with 1,070.
For the supply of new homes that were ready for possession across the Calgary area in October, duplexes and apartments were up year over year, while townhomes pulled back.
Apartments recorded the most substantial upswing, rising to 1,107 available units from 813 a year ago. Northeast Calgary led the count on available apartments last month followed by Fish Creek with 159.
There were 171 duplexes available for immediate possession in the Calgary area last month, up from 117 in October 2016. Last month, northwest and southwest Calgary led the way with 35 and 34, respectively.
With townhomes, the completed supply dipped to 152 from 195, year over year, says CMHC. Most of these units were in northwest Calgary with 77 on the books, followed by 21 in the Fish Creek area.