housing
IF YOU START IT...ONE DAY YOU'LL BE DONE As communities around BC aim to build more homes to support expanding populations, some comfort can be taken that much progress was made last year in the form of record-high housing starts.
Growing our housing supply will be crucial to accommodating future population growth in BC (two million additional residents are coming per BC Stats’ projections we discussed earlier). It can take years to build new homes, particularly apartments and condos, so this housing stock growth can’t happen overnight. But when we look at housing starts from last year, progress has been made with a provincial total at nearly 48,000, 11% more than the previous high. Looking at where those starts occurred, the lion’s share (69%) were in Metro Vancouver,
while just 8% were in the Central Okanagan where almost 3,000 homes were started last year, -17% less than the previous high back in 2017. Additionally, none of the municipalities set a record for starts and only the City of Kelowna and Peachland saw above-average starts. What’s clear is that while there has been a significant increase in construction activity in the province, that’s mostly due to increases in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria, while the Central Okanagan is lagging. There is clearly more opportunity for starts to increase in the region and it will be necessary as the local population continues to grow.
BC BUILDING BOOM
60%
+31% 2023 starts vs. past 10-year avg.
48%
40%
18%
20%
0%
-20%
-22%
-40%
-60%
-75%
-80%
-100%
WEST KELOWNA
LAKE COUNTRY
KELOWNA
PEACHLAND
DATA: % DIFFERENCE IN HOUSING STARTS, 2023 VS. PAST 10-YEAR AVERAGE, BY CSD, KELOWNA
SOURCE: CMHC
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