Developers responding to Kelowna’s low vacancy rate

As the summer temperatures rise, the number of housing starts in Kelowna has slightly cooled, but 2017 is still a banner year when it comes to housing developments.

Kelowna broke housing starts records during the spring of 2017, marking what has been “one of the strongest years for new construction since prior to 2008” according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Construction has begun on a total of 1,855 new housing starts during 2017, which is a striking increase compared to the 993 new homes built during the first half of 2016.

The (CMHC) stats reflect the approval of proposals of multiple new developments in the city.

Mission Group recently released the first images of the planned development on the corner of Ellis Street and Lawrence Avenue, which features 116 condominiums within a 20-storey high-rise building.

Kelowna’s historically low vacancy rate of 1% is likely having a strong effect on new development construction, which is largely comprised of new rental apartments.

Construction on new rental apartments made up 82% of multi-unit starts and almost 65% of total housing starts so far during 2017.

While construction stats trend upwards in Kelowna, other major cities in the province are seeing a decrease in housing starts in 2017.

The number of new homes started in Victoria dropped from 2016 to 2017, with 1,588 started last year by the end of June compared to 1,218 this year.

Vancouver’s housing starts also dropped slightly compared to last year, with 12,200 new homes started from January to June, compared to 14,840 over the same period last year.

However, according to CMHC, with the drastic rise in housing starts in the past year combined with the record number of units now under construction, it will not be surprising to see starts trend downward in the coming months.