City’s increase higher than most in Canada, except Calgary, Edmonton
Sun
The cost of apartment-building construction in Metro Vancouver rose almost 14 per cent over the past 12 months, far ahead of national rate, Statistics Canada reported Monday.
Nationally the composite price index for apartment building construction was 156.2 (1997=100) in the third quarter of 2007, up 8.5 per cent from the third quarter of 2006.
In Metro Vancouver the index rose by 13.8 per cent, to 166.1, compared to Q3 2006, mostly the result of higher labour and materials costs arising from a strong market for building construction, the federal data agency said.
Of the seven census metropolitan areas in the index, Vancouver‘s percentage increase was topped by Calgary and Edmonton, at 18.1 per cent (to 186.8) and 17.9 per cent (179.1) respectively.
Toronto came in fourth at 5.0 per cent (157.3), followed by Ottawa-Gatineau (150.7) at 4.6 per cent. In Halifax the index rose 3.6 per cent (136.5), while in Montreal the increase was just 3.2 per cent (140.5).
The latest figures on increased apartment construction costs follow on last week’s Goodman Report, which noted that the prices that building owners pay for rental apartments in the city of Vancouver are up 18 per cent over 2006.
Based on 2007 sales in apartment buildings up to Oct. 31, the average suite in Vancouver sold for $184,644. In the suburbs of Metro Vancouver, the average apartment price rose nine per cent to $118,000.
Authors of the report, David and Mark Goodman of Macdonald Commercial R.E.S. Ltd., said in Vancouver, the biggest price increase occurred in Kitsilano, where prices rose more than 35 per cent, from $167,956 to $236,413. In Marpole, sales in the first 10 months totalled just five buildings, compared to 14 for all of 2006, and prices rose from $114,903 to $143,990.
David Goodman said he doesn’t foresee much change for Lower Mainland renters who, facing a vacancy rate of less than one per cent in the city, don’t have a lot of apartments to choose from.
“Rental buildings are a vanishing breed,”he said. “Many of these old apartment buildings are 40 years old and they’re becoming troublesome for the owners because of the high cost of maintaining them.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2007