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By Liam Verster
New Housing Starts

Housing starts in Grande Prairie on the rise in 2021

Apr 21, 2021 | 12:36 PM

Recently released data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows that new housing starts in Grande Prairie are up so far in 2021, but the actual completion of construction is still well below last year’s figures.

CMHC’s data shows that as of the end of March, there were 24 new housing projects beginning to be built in 2021. Of those new builds, 17 are single-detached homes, two are semi-detached, three are row houses, and two are apartment units.

The new builds in 2021 are much higher than the 11 started during the same time period in 2020. Those projects consisted of nine single-detached homes and two apartment units.

Outside of that time frame, the data also shows that on a year-over-year comparison, new builds in March 2021 consisted of 10 single-detached homes and two apartments, compared to the four homes and one apartment unit started in March of 2020.

However, despite the increase in new builds this year, the actual completion of housing projects is down from last year’s figures.

As of the end of March 2021, there had been 18 single-detached homes, two semi-detached homes, and three apartment projects fully built in the City of Grande Prairie, totaling 23 projects.

That figure is much lower than the 59 projects completed in the same time frame in 2020. Those projects consisted of 38 single-detached homes, 12 semi-detached homes, and nine apartment units.

CMHC figures also shows that there are 103 projects currently under construction in the Swan City. Those projects consist of 62 single-detached homes, eight semi-detached, six row projects, and 27 apartment units.

CMHC does not provide year-over-year data for projects under construction, but does have month-to-month data, which shows that there were a total of 101 projects under construction in February 2021, 102 projects in January, and 103 under construction in December 2020.

by Liam Verster