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New housing starts, value of building permits up in Greater Victoria

Cost of new housing also rising in region, now in excess of $1.15 million for a new detached home
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According to Statistics Canada, new housing starts and value of building permits in Greater Victoria rose in January 2021 compared to January 2020. (Black Press Media File)

New figures continue to show that construction is booming in Greater Victoria.

Figures for Victoria Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) show the value of issued building permits rose by 41.3 per cent in January 2021 compared to January 2020, with the total value in excess of $143 million.

Other figures also capture this boom. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported 216 new housing starts in January 2021, compared to 46 in January 2020, a year-over-year increase of almost 370 per cent.

RELATED: Value of building permits up 46 per cent in Sidney through 2020

Looking at prices, the average price for a detached house entering the market in January 2021 is $1.15 million, up from $1.04 million. This increase appears in Greater Victoria’s new housing price index measuring changes over time in the contractors’ selling prices of new residential houses. It has reached 107.8 (starting from a base of 100 as of December 2016) in January 2021, an uptick of 5.9 per cent.

These regional figures run counter to some of the provincial figures, which show that the total value of issued building permits in British Columbia dropped by almost 43 per cent in January 2021 compared to January 2020.

Year-over-year, the total value of issued building permits in Canada rose by almost 21 per cent.


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wolfgang.depner@peninsulanewsreview.com



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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