Prince George on pace for another record year for building permits

Prince George has seen fewer building permits being issued so far this year, but a higher dollar figure in permits being issued.

Through June this year, a total of 252 building permits have been issued worth a total of $130.6-million

At the same time last year, 269 permits had been issued worth a total of $127-million.

Building permit values reached nearly $238-million last year, a record high for Prince George.

The biggest driving factor in the increase in dollar figure this year has been new commercial permits.

So far this year, 11 new commercial permits have been issued at a value of $30.4-million.

In the same time-frame last year, there were just 3 new commercial permits issued at a value of $2.1-million.

The report on new permits was brought up before Prince George City Council at Monday’s meeting.

“We saw the CMHC in their quarterly report saying that housing starts have been struggling to keep up with population growth, and that’s what’s making affordability a big challenge,” said Councillor Garth Frizzell.

“Costs are going up, because the population is going up, and the number of houses isn’t going up.”

So far this year in terms of housing permits:

• 52 new single-family dwelling building permits have been issued, worth a total of $29.1-million.
• 29 single-family dwelling alterations permits worth $1.8-million
• 12 new multi-family dwelling permits worth $21.5-million.
• 17 multi-family dwelling alterations permits worth $470,309.
• 5 new duplex building permits worth $2.5-million
• 3 duplex alterations worth $24,596