Prince George saw more than twice as many housing starts this May as last.
“There were 26 [single-family] starts in the month of May – that’s relative to 12 starts last year,” says Brayden Batch, a senior market analyst with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “On the multifamily side, there are eight starts, compared to 3 last year.”
Year to date, Prince George is lagging slightly behind other BC cities of a similar size, Batch says.
“We have 79 year-to-date starts. Compare that to Kamloops, we’re looking at 129 starts and in Courtenay, you’re also looking at about 127. But it in the month of May, in particular, we are actually right on par with Kamloops – they have 34 starts as well and in Courtenay they’re looking at 24 starts.”
But one month’s numbers don’t tell the whole story of the city’s housing construction.
“We do have a large condo apartment that was initiated last year in April. Those are somewhat volatile and don’t come on as regularly so if we’re pulling that out, we’re slightly ahead with the type of construction that is going on.”
In 2016, Prince George saw 167 housing starts.
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