Number of development permits issued in 2022 has slowed, say City of Kelowna staff

The number of building and development applications submitted at Kelowna city hall have slowed this year when compared to the record highs set in 2021.

Ryan Smith, the city’s divisional director of planning and development services, told city council that although the number of applications submitted has slowed by about 20%, the total number of residential building permits issued has remained strong.

While giving council an update on the third quarter of the year, Smith said 2022 has seen the fourth highest number of permits issued in the last decade.

Although only 1,758 permits have been issued to date, permit values are estimated at more than $930 million for this year.

More than 2,800 permits were issued in 2021 and the city exceeded $1 billion in permit values for the entire year.

Smith says the difference between permit values for the third quarters of 2021 and 2022 is due to a number of mega projects, such as One Water Street project, that have higher values.

“We always look at our OCP goals and the most fundamental goal is where we grow and what does that look like,” said Smith.

“We continue to see an overwhelmingly multi-family flavour to the unit split with approximately two-thirds being multi-family. The majority of those, especially in the last quarter, are being in the core area of Kelowna, so that’s exactly what we're looking for.”

Smith said about 78% of units are being built in the core of the city.

As for the types of housing being developed, apartment units dominate the statistics for Kelowna.

More than 1,680 apartment units have been issued permits which exceeds both the five and ten year averages.

“We expect that to come down to between 800 and 1,000 permitted and constructed next year in Kelowna,” explained Smith.

“Which is fewer than we would actually need to keep up with our growth rate. It may be a little bit higher than that, again, it really depends on interest rates, stabilizing and some indication from the Bank of Canada about some predictability in that area.”

Despite high permit values and a large number of apartment units being constructed, Smith predicted that growth will continue to slow to the 10 year average in 2023.

“We’ll continue to see strong interest in rental housing construction and that’s mainly through CMHC financing program,” said Smith

“We’ll also begin to see the first density bonus payments come through.”

Smith added that the lull in development activity will allow staff to turn their attention to other matters.

This includes cleaning up amendments to the new zoning bylaw, preparing to report on the first year of the 2040 Official Community Plan, reviewing the parameters for short time rental regulations and working to streamline the development approval process.

Reports on these matters are expected to be brought forward to council in early 2023.

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