Greater Victoria's real estate market broke new ground in 2017 with the highest number of housing starts recorded in more than 40 years, new numbers show.
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation reports that there were 3,862 housing starts in the region last year, up sharply from the 2,933 housing starts recorded in 2016.
That's the highest number of housing starts since 1976 and the CMHC says a whopping 2,966 of them were apartments and condos.
"Multi-family structures were the majority of housing starts, with elevated rental market starts pushing the total starts to its highest level since 1976," said CMHC Market Analyst Braden Batch. " Metro Victoria’s housing market exhibited strong price growth and overheated market conditions throughout the year, providing a strong incentive for the city’s homebuilders and developers to initiate projects."
Only 896 of last year's housing starts were for single-family detached homes.
Breaking it down by municipalities, the highest number of starts, 979, were recorded in the City of Victoria proper.
Langford was not far behind, recording 963 housing starts for the year. Elsewhere, Saanich had 625 housing starts, View Royal had 280, and Colwood saw 260.
Data provided by Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
