Building pace at 40-year high in capital region
Greater Victoria’s residential builders kicked into a new gear in 2017 and started 3,862 new homes — the most recorded since 4,439 were started in 1976.
Builders started 2,966 multifamily units and 896 single-family homes last year, easily eclipsing last year’s total of 2,933 starts.
“Most people had predicted we’d have a breather last year as a result of the high numbers in 2016, but that didn’t happen,” said Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders Association. “The demand is still strong.”
According to figures released Tuesday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the region’s building boom was driven by the multi-family market again.
The vast majority of starts in the two busiest municipalities were condominiums, with 948 of Victoria’s 979 total starts and 713 of Langford’s total of 963 starts being multi-family units.
In Saanich, 504 of the 625 new homes started were multi-family units.
That’s down to the high cost of land — builders can’t afford to start new single-family homes in some areas, Edge said. “The only way to address that problem is to get more municipalities to accept small-lot subdivisions.”
Edge said while Victoria, Langford and Saanich are examples of municipalities that are looking for solutions to the housing crunch and affordability, there are others unwilling to consider new solutions. While 11 of the region’s 13 municipalities recorded more housing starts last year, there were two that saw declines — Highlands saw 10 new homes started last year, down from 39 in 2016, and Central Saanich saw 32 starts last year, down from 59 in 2016.
But placing blame on rural municipalities is off base, said Highlands Mayor Ken Williams. “We need to have green space to keep our region livable, the regional growth strategy talks about densifying and going vertical in denser areas where it makes sense [while maintaining] livable green spaces. That’s what makes our region livable,” he said.
Williams said it’s unfair to compare rural areas that don’t have piped water and sewers to urban municipalities in the region.
Highlands, which saw its population grow five per cent between 2011 and 2016 to 2,225 people, is trying to be part of the affordability solution as it issued 34 occupancy permits last year and has made establishing a secondary suite policy one of council’s priorities for 2018, Williams said.
Central Saanich Mayor Ryan Windsor said housing start numbers do not always reflect the state of affairs, as his council has recently approved large developments such as the 200-plus unit Marigold Lands project that have not yet broken ground and are not counted.
He said they have approved many more and have added a small-lot zoning option for developers that is now being used.
“We have good process for housing. If you count the number of units this council has approved it’s in the multi-hundreds,” he said. “It may not yet have a building permit, but there’s a lot of stuff waiting in the wings to be built.”
Edge said expectations for 2018 building are unclear as there are variables that could affect the sector.
With the spectre of new mortgage rules, increased building costs due to new regulations and a possible interest rate increase on the horizon, it’s anyone’s guess what the reaction of the building community will be.