Metro starts to pass 18,000 for fifth straight year
Paul Luke
Province
Greater Vancouver housing starts dipped last month, but pockets of strength in Delta, Surrey and Vancouver sustained a brisk pace of construction for the year to date.
Despite a slow August, starts so far this year are seven-per-cent higher than the same period last year, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said yesterday.
“Metro Vancouver will see housing starts exceed 18,000 units for the fifth consecutive year in 2008,” CMHC senior market analyst Robyn Adamache said.
“Demand for new homes remains healthy. However, the inventory of unsold new homes is edging up.”
August starts fell 15.9 per cent to 1,560 from the same month a year ago. Delta’s year-to-date starts roared ahead by 99 per cent, Vancouver‘s jumped 74 per cent and Surrey‘s climbed 66 per cent.
Among the larger year-to-date drops, Langley lost 55 per cent, Burnaby and New Westminster slumped 38 per cent and Maple Ridge fell 21 per cent.
Peter Simpson of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association said multi-family units are still leading the charge across the region.
Multi-family starts in Metro Vancouver rose 11 per cent in the first eight months of the year, while single-family detached fell by six per cent.
The region’s home-building market will remain strong even if the pace of construction eases off during the last four months of this year, he said.
“Workers are happy,” Simpson said. “Starts are jobs.”
Across urban B.C., year-over-year starts fell 11.8 per cent in August.
Nationally, starts rose a better-than-expected 13 per cent in August.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
