The pace of homebuilding around Greater Victoria was slow to start the year, according to data released Thursday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
With builders continuing to work on projects they started in 2017 and a continued shortage of skilled trades, the region saw a significant decrease in the number of starts in January — 100 units were started, down from the 175 recorded in January of 2017.
“January housing starts are lower than in the previous January, however, there were a number of larger projects initiated within the last six months,” said CMHC senior market analyst Braden Batch.
“The planning cycle of these units is longer, and the longer- term trends for apartments is still, very much so, elevated.”
Batch said despite the lower number of starts, the construction industry hasn't really slowed down, as builders are working flat out around the region. “The current construction level is high for metro Victoria,” he said.
Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builder’s Association, agrees.
“We think the demand is still there. It’s really an issue of getting the units up and built,” he said, noting a near-record year in 2017 has everyone hopping.
“Last year we [started] close to 4,000 units and that is not likely to be sustainable. We do not anticipate doing those kinds of numbers again this year,” he said.
Edge said the number of building permits that have been issued around the region suggests there is a lot of inventory still in the planning stages.
In Capital Regional District, “we normally build between 2,000 and 2,200 homes on average in a year, and we will see what numbers reveal themselves in the next few months,” he said. “We still anticipate a decline from what was, frankly, an anomaly last year.”
Greater Victoria's residential builders started 3,862 new homes last year — 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.
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.
