BC is building 2.5x more homes per capita than Canada's most populated province
When it comes to contests between Canadian provinces, BC is all too often the winner for less-than-bragworthy accomplishments like “most expensive rent prices.”
However, when it comes to beating its bigger provincial rivals, the province has been quietly competing and picking up steam in one area: housing starts.
If you look at the number of home starts for the month of March, for instance, per capita, BC is outperforming Ontario 2.5 times over.
That’s according to numbers provided by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which, combined with population numbers from Statistics Canada, shows BC’s coming in hot for construction.
In March, it showed BC had 4,867 new starts compared to Ontario’s 5,522, respectively.
Plus, if you compare Vancouver to Toronto, they are basically neck-in-neck for new starts in March 2024, without even taking into account that Vancouver’s metropolitan area has a population of 2.6 million, and Toronto’s is 6.2 million.
But that’s just March. How does BC compare outside of that one month? BC is pushing ahead.
BC has seen about 27% more apartments and detached homes built compared to the previous year, and in the first three months of 2024 has already outpaced Quebec, with a population of more than 8.7 million, by 33%.
However, if you were hoping to see a surge in single-family homes available to buy, it’s not looking good. Compared to the year 1990, when 14,132 detached homes were built in BC, only 5,500 were started in all of 2023, according to the CMHC numbers. The rest of the 2023 home starts were mostly apartments, 37,513 of them, to be exact.
BC also saw growth in all housing starts between 2022 and 2023, whereas Ontario saw a decline.
The BC government’s housing ministry is among those applauding those numbers and says it’s thanks to major investments and tackling the low housing supply.
“We’re working to make up for years under the previous government where the homes people needed weren’t getting built. We’re also seeing record population growth as people decide to move to BC, record high interest rates increasing construction costs, and slow approval processes at the local level, that creates a challenging environment for builders,” the BC Ministry of Housing told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“We’re seeing some promising indicators that our housing sector is turning a corner. So far in 2024, nearly 16,300 new homes were registered, up 12.8% from the same period in 2023. From 2002-2016, an average of 31,887 homes were registered per year. The Province (2017-2023) continues to outperform despite the pandemic by averaging 44,235 homes registered per year, with the past three years (2021-2023) having the highest years for total registrations since 2002,” it added.
But, the ministry admits they still have work to do.
Plus, there are external pressures on the industry itself exist, as outlined in a recent report from the British Columbia Construction Association, which shows additional concerns from the sector.
The report says inflation continues to hamper profits, and efforts to attract quality workers remain a challenge as the industry continues to see a deficit in skilled tradespeople despite financial and educational incentive programs.
“Labour shortages mean higher wages and steep competition for qualified workers,” the report said. Plus, “Payment uncertainty and the lack of Prompt Payment legislation continue to preoccupy BC’s construction industry employers.”
The organization has also called on BC Premier David Eby to address that challenge, which it says affects the very companies that are trying to help tackle BC’s affordability crisis.
“Construction is the province’s number one goods sector employer. To see yet another legislative cycle pass without the enactment of commonsense legislation already available in other Canadian jurisdictions is shocking. What’s taking so long?” Chris Atchison, BCCA president, said in an online statement.
However, Alberta is also seeing big numbers for new starts, and it has fewer residents than BC. According to the numbers, Alberta reported 9,744 new home starts in the first months of 2024, about a 57% increase over the same time in 2023.
Follow Channels and Categories