By Chad Klassen

Home builders in Kamloops expecting slight downturn in projects

Dec 11, 2018 | 2:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — After the City of Kamloops broke a record for building permits for a second straight year, there is caution from home builders in Kamloops who say the city is in for a slowdown in the coming years.

In the last two years, residential construction has taken off, but particularly in 2018 when homebuilders experienced a 12 per cent uptick in activity. 

“The demand has been there. There’s been people coming from around the province. There’s been an exodus of people leaving the Lower Mainland and coming over from Alberta as well,” notes President of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B.C. Matt McCurrach who also owners Kamloops homebuilding company Homex. “So that’s really helped stimulate the housing economy in Kamloops.”

As of the end of November, the city has raked in $262 million in permits. Six million of those dollars came in the form of single apartment complexes like the one on McGill Road across from TRU.

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Commercial construction led the way with a 41 per cent increase in building permits in 2018, including the new U-Haul storage facility. 

“This is one of them. We’ve had other ones, out in Dallas for industrial permits as well and then we had the nursing project. That was $28 million at TRU, so we’ve had a bit of a mix of projects,” says Director of Development, Engineering & Sustainability Marvin Kwiatkowski.

Homebuilders in Kamloops say it might be tough to keep the record-breaking numbers up. For one, the housing market in the Lower Mainland has cooled quite a bit, meaning the demand for homes here is down. There’s also a lack of lot space in Kamloops.

“Typically, we get a few good years and then it’ll moderate and I think what we’re seeing out of the Lower Mainland, where it is slowing down, we’re bound to see some of that happen here because a large percentage of the buyers have been coming and leaving the Lower Mainland.”

After a quarter-billion dollars in 2017, and projections that 2018 will finish close to the 300 million dollar mark, the City of Kamloops agrees with homebuilders that residential construction will likely be down. 

However, with construction on the 417 million dollar RIH Patient Care Tower continuing in 2019, the overall building permit numbers just may breaking another record.