Greater Victoria smashes record for new housing construction starts

Greater Victoria is going to set a new record for homebuilding, according to numbers released Wednesday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The housing authority said there have been 3,477 new homes started in the region so far this year, smashing the previous 12-month record of 3,247 set in 1989.

“It’s a big shock to us and to CMHC I’m sure,” said Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builder’s Association. “We thought there would be a breather this year. We were predicting around 2,400 starts and it’s already at 3,400. That’s quite an astonishing number.”

The record is due to a surge in multifamily starts in October.

Last month, there were 705 condominiums, apartments and townhomes started in Greater Victoria, compared with 136 in October last year. By comparison, there were 76 single-family homes started last month, while there were 77 started in October 2016.

Year-to-date, there have been 2,720 multi-family units started in the region, a massive jump from the 1,745 in the same period last year.

“The starts are due to low inventory of unsold units in the condo market and a low vacancy rate in the rental market,” according to CMHC. “Victoria has strong demand fundamentals, but limited available product for renters and buyers in the current environment.”

Edge said the region’s homebuilding market has changed due to the price of land.

“Over the last two years, land costs have skyrocketed and the only real solution is density,” he said. “There are still some municipalities where that is a challenge, but at the end of the day in order to have any semblance of affordability there has to be increased density.”

Victoria has led the way in terms of building so far this year with 899 new homes started, while Langford has seen 882 new starts and Saanich reports 598.