Greater Vancouver housing starts are firmly on track for their best performance in a decade.

Latest numbers from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), show no slackening in the pace of construction with starts of 18,053 running nearly 24 per cent ahead of November a year ago.

Starts have already smashed through CMHC’s original projections of 16,600 and could end the year near the 20,000 mark, just adrift of the 20,473 starts recorded in 1994.

Peter Simpson CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association said the strong market is being underpinned by the multiple-unit sector that now comprises two-thirds of the market. But single-family starts are also up at 5,239, 3.8 per cent ahead of last year’s 5,047.

Simpson said it has been an excellent year for the industry, but conceded there will be a levelling off in activity next year.

“We will probably see a small increase in 2005, but B.C. will be the only place in Canada to record an increase,” he said.

Cameron Muir, CMHC Senior Market Analyst in Vancouver said “while inventory in the resale market has increased substantially over last year, the inventory of new homes still remains very low.

“The Vancouver market is entering a new phase. The frenzied buying activity experienced last spring is unlikely to be repeated in 2005.

“Next year the market will be more balanced. Eroding affordability caused by higher prices and gradually rising mortgage rates will be offset by strong fundamentals like job growth, rising wages and increasing net migration to the province,” he said.

Urban housing starts have been strong right across the province. So far there have been 28,646 housing starts, a healthy 25-per-cent increase over last year’s 22,915 starts.

Meanwhile, Scotia Economics says the house-construction boom has been an important factor behind Canadian job creation. Total paid employment over the first eight months of 2004 was 5.5 per cent higher than the same period in 2001, representing just over 700,000 new public- and private-sector jobs, Scotia says.

Employment in the broad construction industry has risen 16 per cent, or by 91,000 net new positions, since 2001. While the industry represents just five per cent of all paid employment in Canada, it has accounted for 13 per cent of all new jobs created.

© The Vancouver Province 2004