2025 has been a strong year for development in Prince George, and November was no different.
According to a staff report to Council, the City issued 29 building and development permits last month, worth a combined $9.2 million.
Eight of those permits were for single-family dwellings, worth a combined $4.4 million.
“The piece that really struck me is the number of single family dwellings we get every month, and how much that contributes to the housing that’s available in Prince George,” said Councillor Garth Frizzell.
“Yes, it’s exciting to see the permit value numbers and the number of permits, really great to see that, but I was zeroing in on those single family because it seems like we’re getting a lot of houses built every month.”
Frizzell also asked for a brief outlook for the end of the year.
“The future permits that we note, that are development permits that will eventually be building permits indicate a strong 2026,” said Director of Planning and Development Deanna Wasnik.
“But your note about the housing, for single-family dwellings, that’s certainly a number that stands out, especially for November, but I think it’s important to note also, the stats we see this year to the end of November, which this report is reporting on, are strong across all building permit types.”
As of the end of November, the City has issued 401 permits worth a combined $287.7 million so far this year.
“I think this is a really strong indicator that Prince George is going strong and 2025 has been a very good year for construction,” Frizzell responded.
“It shows a lot of confidence in our city.”
“I’ve been obviously frustrated with Development Services, and my frustration isn’t with the staff, it’s with the process,” he said.
“I wanted to make sure [Wasnik] and her know that it’s not them, and I really appreciate the work that they do.”
Councillor Ron Polillo asked if there was potentially to surpass the $300 million mark for the year.
“We’re within range, but I’m hesitant to commit because I’m not sure what December’s numbers look like quite yet,” Wasnik said.
“I just bring that up because that would be nearly double what we did in 2023, to me, when I read the report, that really shot out at me,” Polillo responded.
Frizzell added it would be hard to be comparable next year due to large projects from Northern Health.
Wasnik noted the large projects could be highlighted in these monthly reports as a reminder.
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