Rental units made up the vast majority of new housing starts in Prince George.
That’s according to the 2021-year-end data from the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation.
Last year, 665 new starts were recorded in the northern capital with over 67% of them rental units.
Senior Economic Analyst, Pershing Sun told MyPGNow.com Prince George is enjoying quite the construction boom.
“In 2020, the growth in construction or housing starts in Prince George was only 8% but in 2021, the growth was 47% so that is quite a difference.”
“The majority of the housing starts were rental units. So about, 446 new rental units got on the way of the construction process.”
She adds many home buyers are making their way north after being priced out of the housing market in the Lower Mainland or other metropolitan areas outside the province.
“Some people might start to become interested in smaller regions where the housing costs are not that sky-high.”
“The rental sector is reacting to a bit of population growth,” added Sun.
According to Stats Canada, the northern capital went from 77,490 residents in 2016 to 82,290 people in 2020.