Spending on home building in BC increased nearly 17 per cent year over year in October, and 4.2 per cent since last month, to $871.7 million, according to a Statistics Canada report published December 22.
As has been the trend for many months, apartment-condo construction was by far the biggest driver of growth in BC home building investment, rising 30.2 per cent compared with October 2014 to $390.6 million, a jump of 12.7 per cent month over month.
Spending on townhouse and row home construction continued to grow, increasing 14.9 per cent year over year to $75.9 million in October. This was a 0.1 per cent rise over September 2015 – a notable slowing since last month.
Detached home construction investment in the province also increased, with the $379.5 million spent across BC an 8.8 per cent rise over October 2014, but this was a drop of 1.9 per cent compared with September.
As has been the case over the last several months, the only new home type to see an annual decline in investment in October was duplex housing, spending on which fell 20.1 per cent year over year and 5.8 per cent month over month to $25.7 million.
Also as in recent months, the province’s total $871.7 million new home construction spend was once again the third highest dollar figure in the country, after Ontario and Alberta.
BC’s 16.7 per cent annual increase was fourth highest in October, with the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia and Ontario all increasing their construction spend at a faster rate.
Across Canada as a whole, new home spending continued to rise at a much slower rate than BC’s, totalling nearly $4.7 billion in October, a rise of 4.3 per cent from the same month a year earlier and a drop of 1.5 per cent compared with September.
Statistics Canada again reported notable year-over-year declines in nationwide spending single-family housing and duplex construction, with investment in these property types falling 6.9 per cent and 15.1 per cent respectively.
As with last month, the declines in those property types were balanced out by much higher investment in multi-family home construction across Canada, which rose 27.6 per cent year over year to $1.8 billion, as well as higher spending on townhome construction, up a much more moderate 2.1 per cent to $438 million.
However as usual, across the country, detached homes again saw the biggest total investment in October at just short of $2.25 billion.
To see Statistics Canada’s interactive chart, click here.
