Housing starts were down 16 per cent in Victoria over 2024, despite general growth in the rest of Canada according to a new Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) report.  

鈥淐anada鈥檚 urban centres saw an uptick in housing starts in 2024 compared to last year, marking the third-highest year on record.鈥� said Mathieu Laberge, CMHC鈥檚 chief economist and senior vice-president of market insights.

It鈥檚 good news for the rest of Canada, but unfortunately not so much for Victoria.

CMHC uses housing starts as a metric used to "obtain a clearer picture of upcoming new housing supply." They found that national housing starts rose by two per cent from 2023 to 2024, largely due to 鈥渉istorically high rental construction levels and overall increased starts in Alberta, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.鈥�  

鈥淧rovincially mandated targets are simply not being met,鈥� said Casey Edge, the executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders Association (VRBA). He says the reason for the decrease is due to provincial policies making it more challenging to build 鈥� despite calling for more housing construction.  

鈥淒evelopment cost charges in the City of Victoria are up 258 per cent.鈥�  

It's an issue at the top of mind for Edge, who spoke in depth on the topic at the annual He says the DCCs are having a real impact and turning builders away from business in much of Greater Victoria.

鈥淪ome builders will not build in some municipalities, there are some builders that will not build in Victoria. Some builders will not build in Saanch. The more obstruction, the more challenges there are, they just don鈥檛 want to build there.鈥�  

There were 4,185 total starts across the Victoria metropolitan area in 2024, down from 4,992 in 2023. CMHC figures show there were 4,787 starts in 2022, 4,809 in 2021 and 3,209 in 2020.

Oak Bay, Sidney, North Saanich, View Royal, Esquimalt and Central Saanich all had significant decreases in 2024, with Esquimalt and Central Saanich seeing a loss of nearly 80 per cent of housing starts. No homes at all were built in the Highlands or Metchosin, while Langford and Colwood saw increases of 7 and 76 per cent respectively.  

鈥淭he B.C. government needed to cap these fees in order to get results in terms of housing starts. They didn鈥檛 do that,鈥� Edge says.  

According to Edge, the consequence of decreasing housing starts will contribute to increased pricing in the long term.  

鈥淚nterest rates right now are between four and five per cent, for five years fixed, and so that will improve home sales,鈥� he said.  

鈥淏ut eventually you run out of supply, that will cause an increase in home prices. It鈥檚 a supply-and-demand issue.鈥� 

While DCCs are an issue they are not all-encompassing and Edge says they鈥檙e not the only thing that needs to change. In addition to a cap on DCCs, Edge says he wants to see mandatory site standards outlining suitable setbacks, building heights and more and enforced timelines for development permit approvals. Finally, he wants to see an end to the 鈥渘ever-ending changes to the building code adding thousands of dollars to housing.鈥� 

CMHC鈥檚 report on housing starts in Canada can be found on its