Fewer than ever single-family houses begun in November
Derrick Penner
Sun
Builders in Metro Vancouver began hammering up more homes in November than during any month in the past 30 years, and the most through the first 11 months since 1994, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Monday.
However, an increasing number of those homes are condominiums and townhouses as the Lower Mainland’s high-priced markets make single-family houses a luxury item.
In November, only 364 of 2,704 new homes started were single-family houses, compared with 403 of 1,405 houses started in the same month a year ago.
To the end of November, single-family homes made up 3,826 of the 19,491 housing starts recorded, compared with 5,386 detached houses among 17,389 starts in the first 11 months of 2006.
“There has been a 30-per-cent increase in [multi-family] starts and it’s mainly Vancouver and Surrey [multi-family projects] that are driving the results,” Robyn Adamache, an analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing said in an interview.
However, Adamache added that she expects housing starts to slip back to 18,500 in 2008, because builders won’t be able to find the workers to build all the homes the market will demand — and because of high prices.
“This is why we’ve seen such a large increase on the multi-family side,” she said.
The average price for a detached house in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s reporting area was $813,137 in November. The average townhouse price was $483,210. The average condominium price was $418,709.
In Surrey, which is included in the Vancouver census metropolitan area but is not part of the REBGV area, the average house price was $511,580 in November. Surrey‘s average townhouse price was $317,522 and the average condominium price $208,107.
Peter Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, said rising costs and high prices, especially for first-time buyers, are the industry’s biggest concerns.
“If the new-entry [market segment] falters, it will start radiating through the market,” Simpson said. “But right now, a lot of these buildings are being sold out in short order to first-time buyers.”
He added that the range of housing forms available these days goes right down to small studio apartments that designers try to make as livable as possible with space-efficient designs.
“That’s a direct response to the affordability challenge,” Simpson added.
Province wide, work on 3,718 new homes began in November.
“It was a strong month for home building,” Carol Frketich, CMHC’s regional economist for B.C. said.
Right now, Frketich added, the province is on track to start construction on the most homes the province has seen since 1994.
She pointed to B.C.’s strong labour market, with the employment rate in November hitting an all-time high of 63.9 per cent.
“We’ve got more people moving here, there’s strong net migration,” Frketich said.
“There’s growth in income, growth in jobs, and this all contributes to an active housing market.”
Nationally, the pace of new-housing construction reached a seasonally adjusted average of 227,900 units for the year.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
