Record number of new homes registered in BC in 2021

The Arc condominium tower under construction in downtown Vancouver in 2018. (Ian Ius/Daily Hive)

A newly released report by the provincial government shows British Columbia saw a record number of new homes registered in 2021.

BC Housing reports that 53,189 new homes of all types were registered last year, representing a 67.5% increase from 2020.

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To monitor new housing construction activity in the province, the “registered” status is defined as when data is collected at the beginning of a project, before building permits are issued.

The total for 2021 includes 12,282 new single-detached homes, which is up by 31.9% compared to the previous year.

Another 40,907 registrations were for new multi-unit homes, such as condominiums, duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes.

BC home registrations of all types. (BC Housing)

metro vancouver single family detached homes

Metro Vancouver single-family home registrations. (BC Housing)

New purpose-built rental homes reached 12,899 units, accounting for 31.5% of all multi-unit homes and representing a 47.7% year-over-year increase. In contrast, between 2017 and 2021, there were 51,616 new purpose-built rental homes registered — more than the combined total of the previous 15 years, from 2002 to 2016.

“This report shows that we can meet the challenge to increase the supply of desperately needed rental homes for individuals, families and seniors in BC, if cities partner with us to get building permits issued quickly for these registered units,” said David Eby, BC Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing, adding that over 25,000 people moved to BC over the last three months alone.

For December 2021, there were 3,576 new registered homes, representing a 2.7% decrease from December 2020.

The month saw 913 single-detached homes registered, up by 3.9% compared to the same month in 2020.

Registered new multi-unit homes over the last month of 2021 reached 2,183 units — up by 2.2% compared to December 2020. This includes 480 purpose-built rental homes, representing an 18.5% drop from the same period in the previous year.

Vancouver trailed behind Surrey in 2020 with registered new single-family homes, reaching 802 and 1,120 units, respectively. But Vancouver rallied in 2021, with new single-family home registrations increasing to 1,100 units — exceeding the 1,027 units recorded in Surrey.

Langley, Delta, and Richmond also saw notable year-over-year jumps in new single-family home registrations last month.

Vancouver also led in total new home registrations in December 2021, reaching 721 units, including 615 multi-unit homes, and 106 single-family homes. This was followed by Surrey with 365 units (257 multi-unit, 106 single-detached), Victoria with 341 units (310 multi-unit, 31 single-detached), Coquitlam with 273 units (271 multi-unit, 2 single-detached), Burnaby with 255 units (238 multi-unit, 17 single-detached), Langley with 200 units (104 multi-unit, 96 single-detached), and Richmond with 185 units (165 multi-unit, 20 single-detached).

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