By James Peters

CMHC bullish on Kamloops construction sector despite down 2017

Jan 9, 2018 | 10:41 AM

KAMLOOPS — The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says its look at the 2017 home construction market in Kamloops is a positive one, considering total starts were down.

658 new starts were recorded by CMHC last year, a six per cent decrease from 2016’s total.

But Market Analyst Taylor Pardy says while new apartment projects were cut in half last year, all other segments were up markedly, including the key single family sector.

“If we break it down by single detached and multi-unit dwellings, what’s interesting is the amount of single detached home construction, and how that increased significantly in 2017 while the multi-unit segment moderated somewhat,” said Pardy.

“The significant increase in single detached construction is indicative of continued robust growth in the Kamloops area in terms of population.”

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Pardy notes the apartment segment is still showing strong demand, even though new starts were off last year.

“While multi-unit starts were down in 2017, in doesn’t mean that there is not significant demand for these units. In fact, if we look at the inventories of newly-completed homes, particularly on the multi-unit side — basically, homes that are sitting unsold on the market — there are very few of them,” said Pardy.

CMHC is forecasting a continued strong construction trend for 2018, as well.

“What we are anticipated seeing — and what we did see, actually, in December in Kamloops — was an increase in starts, particularly in apartment/condo starts. That is one of the segments that has very low inventory right now of newly-completed units that are sitting unsold. In fact, I think there are actually zero,” said Pardy.