New multi-family developments are fueling a spurt in housing starts in Greater Victoria — and elsewhere in the country.
For the first six months of this year, a total of 1,814 new homes got underway in the capital region. That’s up from 1,713 for the same months in 2022, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said in its monthly report released Tuesday.
The bulk of the new homes are apartments, which could be either condominiums or rental units.
Of the 1,500 new apartment units started, more than half — 814 — were in Langford and the rest of the West Shore, followed by James Bay in the City of Victoria at 306. Esquimalt — where construction is booming — accounted for 156 starts, followed by the rest of the City of Victoria at 154.
So far this year, 201 single-family homes of all kinds were started, down from 341 for the same months last year.
In June alone, a total of 502 homes were started in the capital region, more than double the 233 in June 2022.
At 468 starts, apartments represented the majority of the new homes started in June. Of those, the West Shore accounted for more than half, at 256 units.
High land prices and rising building costs due to inflation and other factors have combined to drive construction of apartments rather than single-family homes, which typically carry higher price tags for buyers.
The benchmark price for a single-family house in Greater Victoria was $1.173 million in June, while the price for a condominium was $572,700, according to the Victoria Real Estate Board.
CMHC said June saw the largest month-over-month increase in a decade for national housing starts, powered by work beginning on new multi-unit projects.
It said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in Canada totalled 281,373 units in June, up from 200,018 in May.
The increase came as the annual pace of urban starts increased 46 per cent to 262,815 units in June. The rate of multi-unit urban starts rose 59 per cent to 219,914, while the rate of starts for single-detached urban homes increased three per cent to 42,901.
The annual rate of housing starts in Vancouver in June was up 71 per cent from May, while Toronto doubled the pace set in the previous month.
CMHC estimated the annual pace of rural starts at 18,558 units for June.
The six-month moving average of the annual pace of housing starts was 234,974 units in June, up from 229,520 units in May.
