Greater Victoria’s home-construction sector started to slow down in the summer, with the pace of building dropping behind 2018.
Through July, Greater Victoria has seen 1,921 new homes started, down from the 2,185 started through the first seven months of last year. The biggest drop has been in single-family homes. Through July 2018 there were 521 new homes started, while this year there have been 321.
Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders Association said the decline was bound to come after two record years of construction.
He said the multi-family projects now underway have been in the pipeline for a couple of years and are just coming to fruition, while the single-family numbers are a better indication of current economic conditions.
However, he noted development and construction has had cold water poured on it by all levels of government.
“There have been policies at the provincial and municipal level that frankly have to some degree undermined housing supply,” he said, noting affordable housing requirements and policies, new regulations and codes have all contributed to a cooling off in the building industry.
“Developers and builders will be less inclined toward risk in an environment where there’s a speculation tax, or [affordable housing] policies,” he said. “The layering of regulation where developers and builders will be less inclined to build undermines supply.”
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Ontario was one of the few places to buck a national trend that saw the pace of construction of new homes slow in July.
CMHC’s seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell by 9.6 per cent in July to 222,013, compared with 245,455 in June. However, the decline was smaller than expected and CMHC’s six-month trend rose to 208,970 units from 205,765 units in June. Economists had estimated a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 203,500, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
