Building permits spike in N.B. signalling residential building boom
StatsCan says $169.9 million in building permits were issued in November, second-highest figure province has registered in a single month
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The total monthly value of building permits in New Brunswick has spiked, signalling a residential building boom, according to newly released data.
That’s while housing starts have declined elsewhere across the country.
Statistics Canada says $169.9 million in building permits were issued in New Brunswick in November, the second-highest dollar figure the province has registered in a single month on record.
The record was set in August.
The November figure is a 34.8-per-cent jump from a year ago.
Nearly all of that growth was through residential permits that jumped 57 per cent year over year to $120.7 million, $43.8 million more than last November.
Month over month, it was a 30.6-per-cent gain in New Brunswick.
That’s as the total monthly value of building permits in Canada decreased 3.9 per cent from October to $10.9 billion in November, with declines posted across almost all building type components.
Atlantic residential building boom
The federal Conservatives seized on the decline in the overall numbers on Wednesday, issuing a statement saying “housing starts have plummeted across the country, making housing more expensive for all Canadians.”
“Quite simply, the Trudeau government is failing to build enough homes for Canadians to live in,” the party added.
But eight provinces across the country saw monthly gains in residential construction intentions, even though the total value of residential permits declined 2.8 per cent overall to $7 billion in November.
In British Columbia, the total value of residential permits declined by 19.4 per cent, and Quebec fell by 17.3 per cent, month-over-month declines that more than offset the residential gains in the rest of the country.
The overall numbers overshadow gains in Atlantic Canada as a whole.
The Atlantic provinces collectively increased 30 per cent in residential permit values to $421.8 million in November, the highest monthly value for the region in the first 11 months of last year.
Prince Edward Island has seen a 77-per-cent jump in residential permits year over year.
New Brunswick figures
A building permit is an official approval issued by local government agencies that allows the construction or significant remodelling of a project on a property.
Statistics Canada suggests permits are a gauge of the strength of the national housing market and an estimate of the future performance of the construction industry.
It coincides in New Brunswick with a population boom where the province recently recorded that it added another 8,000 people over the last quarter.
The province’s population has only increased by that much in a single quarter three times since Confederation.
All three times are in the last year and a half.
Statistics Canada estimates updating the country’s population as of Oct. 1 show New Brunswick’s population boom only continuing, growing to 842,725.
The new building permit numbers suggest the growth is strongest in Moncton.
A total of $66.5 million in building permits were issued in the Hub City in November, a 141.8-per-cent increase year over year.
It’s a higher dollar figure than bigger cities including Kingston and Oshawa in Ontario, while also higher than figures in Saskatchewan’s capital city Regina and Nanaimo, B.C.
Meanwhile, there was also significant growth in Saint John with $26.9 million in building permits issued in November, an increase of 52 per cent.
That said, permits in Fredericton dropped slightly year over year to $26.4 million.
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