Apartment and condominium construction in Greater Victoria has pushed the region’s housing starts for the first five months ahead of the same months a year ago.
A total of 1,256 homes were started by the end of May. Of those, 926 were condos and apartments units and 330 were single-family homes. That’s compared to 939 total starts from January through May 2017.
“Langford led the metro housing starts in May with an uptick in condo construction,” Braden Batch, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s senior analyst for Vancouver Island, said in a statement on Friday. He also pointed to high numbers in Central Saanich and View Royal.
“Overall, the trend in total housing starts increased six per cent from the previous month and year-to-date total starts were up thirty-four per cent.”
Rental demand is the largest driver of housing starts, Batch said.
Single-family starts dropped to 330 so far this year, from 387 for the same time in 2017.
Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders Association, said it is no surprise that Langford led the way because it is the “most efficient municipality.” Langford prides itself on how quickly it processes development applications.
A total of 443 homes have been started from January through May in Langford this year, beating out other municipalities.
In May alone, Langford also topped the number of starts locally, with 107.
Edge noted that throughout the capital region, single-family starts for May increased to 93 last month from 74 in May 2017. A “significant number” of homes are also in the pipeline, he said.
But B.C.’s upcoming speculation tax has already resulted in the cancellation of some single-family building projects, Edge said. The province is planning to impose this tax in the fall, restricting the amount of time that a property can remain empty before additional taxes are levied.
A planned retirement home that was to be built at Bear Mountain in Langford was scrapped because it would have cost the new owner an additional $30,000 a year, Edge said.
The tax would hit people from out of province planning their future in the capital region, he said. “They are going to build their home before they move here.”
Another single-family house project, also in Langford, has been postponed, and possibly cancelled, because of the tax, Edge said.
At the Residential Home Builders Association’s annual housing forecast conference this year, participants did not anticipate a speculation tax, he said. Other “headwinds” were expected from tougher mortgage rules, rising interest rates and increased U.S. tariffs, Edge said.
The province has an opportunity to “come to its senses” prior to enacting the tax, Edge said.
If B.C. wants to create more housing, what’s needed is regional zoning and planning in urban containment areas, he said.
