Prince George’s building permit stats for 2023 are in a bit of a lull.
This year’s stats through the month of May were presented to Prince George City Council at Monday’s meeting.
In May, the city issued a total of 38 building permits worth a combined total of $9,289,268.97.
Six permits worth a combined $3.1 million were issued to build new single-family dwellings, while three permits worth a combined $833,700 were issued to build new duplexes.
This year through to the end of May, the city has issued a total of 125 permits worth a combined total of $36,393,270.08.
At the same time last year, 194 permits had been issued worth a total of $116,393,912.06.
The number of new single-family dwelling permits issued as well as the combined total is less than half of what it was in 2022, same with new multi-family dwellings.
Director of Planning and Development Deanna Wasnik said the city’s Administration and Planning and Development department are remaining positive.
“Both in our subdivision division being over 100 active applications, as well as the number of active land use applications in terms of rezonings,” Wasnik said.
“I think this underlines how connected we are to the rest of the Canadian economy,” replied Councillor Garth Frizzell.
“I’m imagining if we have continued rate increases we may see it extend, but the moment those rates go down, it sounds like there’s a lot that’s ready to go.”
Last week, the Bank of Canada raised the key interest rate a quarter of a percentage point to 4.75 per cent.
“They’re projected to have another rate increase next month, and this doesn’t bode well for commercial development which borrows millions of dollars in order to put these developments in our communities,” said Councillor Cori Ramsay.
“When the rates are this high, it’s just not economically feasible to build in this type of environment, let alone given the labour and material shortages, it’s not a good time to build.”
Frizzell added with the increase in demand and decrease in supply for housing, he’s expecting numbers to come back up.
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