Ashley Ford
Province
B.C.’s vibrant house-building sector caught a minute breather in September with housing stars slowing marginally from August’s torrid pace.
According to Statistics Canada, housing permits worth $666.2 million were issued, a 0.5-per-cent decline from August’s $664.7 million.
But on an annual basis, residential permits worth $5.02 billion were issued to the end of September, a 12-per-cent increase from a year ago.
When non-residential permits are rolled in, values are running 26.2 per cent ahead of a year ago at $7.5 billion.
B.C. non-residential permits dipped by 18.5 per cent in September to $244.1 million, but on an annual basis, they are running a whopping 68.9 per cent ahead of a year ago at $2.5 billion.
It was the same across Canada as builders took out $5.1 billion worth of permits in September, down 5.3 per cent from the record $5.4 billion worth in August.
Despite that, the boom continued for single and multiple housing units with permits rising by 3.2 per cent to $3.3 billion.
The non-residential sector dragged down overall numbers.
The value of non-residential permits came in at $1.9 billion, down 17.1 per cent from August.
© The Vancouver Province 2005
