Value of permits issued in March more than 13 per cent lower than last year, although this is a recovery from a very weak February
Joannah Connolly
The Vancouver Sun
The value of residential building permits issued in Metro Vancouver in March saw another year-over-year drop, in spite of housing supply not keeping close to the pace of demand for homes in the region.
Home construction permits issued in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in March 2016 were valued at a total of just under $530 million, a drop of more than 13.5 per cent compared with March 2015, although this is a dramatic recovery of 52 per cent compared with February’s very weak figures.
This year-over-year fall was led by an annual decline in the value of condo-apartment building permits issued, which dropped 29.4 per cent year over year to total value of $305.7 million in March.
Just shy of $155 million worth of permits for detached homes were issued in March, up 16.8, and attached home permits (such as row homes and townhomes, excluding duplexes) continued their growth, more than doubling in March, up 123.7 per cent over March 2015 to $63.8 million.
However, the popularity of building new duplexes continued to wane, with just $2.1 million of permits issued in Vancouver CMA in March, down 76.9 per cent year over year.
Residential permits across BC in March were down 8.3 per cent year over year to $759 million in value, although this was a rise of 38 per cent compared with February.
Abbotsford-Mission’s much smaller and more variable building permit values increased 54.8 per cent year-over-year to nearly $15 million, a near-doubling of 96.6 per cent from February’s $7.6 million.
Permits in Victoria totalled $54.2 million in value in March, a rise of 10.1 per cent year over year and drop of 5.4 per cent month over month.
Home building values in Kelowna rose 34.4 per cent year over year, and 29.4 per cent since February, to total $27.8 million worth of permits issued.
Across Canada last month, the total value of residential permits issued saw a similar pattern to Vancouver. Its total was nearly $3.6 billion worth of permits, a 6.9 per cent decline compared with the same month last year but a 46.9 per cent increase since February.
View Statistics Canada’s interactive charts here.
© 2016 Real Estate Weekly